


Families

by kaligos



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Crime, F/M, Hitmen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-16 18:51:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9285413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaligos/pseuds/kaligos
Summary: Nick Wilde formerly a con-mammal and liquidator for the Big's has given up his old family in turn for a life in blue. The first fox on the ZPD his honesty, bravery and loyalty will be tested when his old family starts to move in on his new one, and he and Judy will be caught right in the middle as a mafia cold war goes hot.





	1. Under Pressure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SophieRipley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieRipley/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Brotherhood](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8885605) by [SophieRipley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieRipley/pseuds/SophieRipley). 



> This story was directly inspired by Brotherhood written by Sophiewitch, if you haven't read it go read it right now even before chapter 1, of this story because this is basically a sequel to that story. Also go give them Kudos they are one of my favorite authors in this fandom, and this work wouldn't exist without theirs.
> 
> Special thanks too Drummermax64, and Det&r from the city of Zootopia Discord for acting as my beta's on this chapter. This wouldn't exist without your input.

Three months ago, Nick Wilde was assigned to the ZPD’s illustrious Precinct One. Three months ago, Chief Bogo had made it abundantly clear where his loyalties needed to lie, and aside from a few remarks and quips, he’s always come away clean. He really has chosen his brotherhood and family in blue over his old life.

Things were looking up, Judy was getting the recognition she deserved which was great. He was making friends, _actual_ friends, for the first time in his life. He was a part of a pack and he slept softly on a bed of clouds each night enjoying his life and for once feeling proud of himself.

So it was surprising how quickly all of that came crashing down around him when his phone rang. Nick’s eyes cracked open when he heard the haunting ringtone, his mind urging him to not answer the call. He knew what it was as soon as he looked at the number, but he answered as he was bidden to do. “Ombra here.”

“Shut it, Wilde. My office, ten minutes.” Bogo’s gruff and unmistakable voice called out over the phone giving Nick all the reason he needed to slowly rise his head from the comfort of his pillows and curse the fact that he had even tried to keep this phone. His eyes squinted and adjusted to the dark of night his large windows telling him that it was well before the sun would even attempt to rise.

“It takes twenty minutes for the bus, sir.” There was an angry pause where Nick could only hear breathing on the other end of the line

“Then I suggest you run.”

Wilde had done well in the physical courses at the academy. Valedictorian of his class, spotless records, of course he hadn’t set nearly as many academy records as the previous year’s valedictorian, but really, who could compete with that legendary beast of a mammal?

So, it wasn’t really surprising seeing Wilde manage the run and reach the Precinct One building in record time; albeit out of breath. Wilde scurried up to Bogo’s office, literally falling through the door when he arrived.

The water buffalo, for the most part, seemed impressed with the vulpine officer. “I should make you do that more often fox. You could actually be early for once.”

Wilde opted to just lay on the ground for a bit, huffing and puffing. He was late. The run had taken him about 17 minutes, but it was still three minutes under what the stopping and turning of the bus would normally do. The cost of those three minutes was that every single muscle in his body ached. He hurt in places he didn’t even know could feel pain. Still laying on the ground and suffering in mild agony, he raised a single paw up towards the sky and expressed exactly how he felt about his boss with a single finger.

“Always a pleasure Wilde. Now sit.” Bogo’s tone was much darker than usual as Wilde crawled languidly to the chair and pulled himself up to sit down on it. Sitting was good. It wasn’t as good as laying down, but it was nice, and after this was over, coffee and the use of the precinct showers would be even better.

“Chief, what’s the big deal.”

“Wilde, where were you last Friday night at 9pm.” Bogo’s tone and death glare told Nick that this was serious enough that he had to pack in the jokes for later.

“Working for you, me and ca… Officer Hopps covered part of the night shift patrol, you should know that. o what is this about?” Nick asked again as a red file was dumped onto the desk. Nick opened it and he felt his breath hitch for a moment,not just because he was still struggling with the fact that every muscle in his body was on fire. Kevin was about as inside to Big’s family as one could get, and this was a photo of the polar bear with a single bullet between the eyes.

“That was my informant, Wilde. Can you guess who killed him?” Nick looked over the case file. Most of the time Big’s victims would show up floating down the river, a select few would end up like this, this was the work of a liquidator in Big’s employ, but as he looked over the second smallest case file he had ever seen in his life he felt his heart sink. This was his old job, his old line of work, and his killing tactic; this was the work of Ombra.

Nick shook his head, and placed the red file back on Bogo’s desk. “I know it wasn’t you. A liquidator just killed my informant with your old gun this isn’t an accusation wilde it’s a message a very bloody one towards you and Officer Hopps which is why I need you on this.”

“Sir, with all-do-respect, we’re new at this. Judy has been on the force a year, and I only got here three months ago.” Nick spoke with a panicked look across his face. This was not what he wanted. This was not how he had wanted to prove himself, and of course there was the risk that exploring these cases may exactly implicate himself.

“Shut it now.” Bogo breathed deeply. “If it gets out about who you were, Wilde, both our tails will be boiled. I made an exception to bring you here. Overlooked something I knew could come back to haunt you because I saw the potential for the best team of officers I have ever had the honor of serving with. If you help us in capturing this mammal, then you’re free to serve. All your previous crimes become their problem and you get a ‘get out of jail free’ card.”

“How generous.” Wilde almost felt sick as he rolled his eyes.

“It’s for the best Wilde, if it gets out who you were it’s not just our jobs that we lose it’s the trust of the people. If your past gets out, the ZPD will never hire another fox. Your bunny will be caught up in this as well. No one will trust-”

Wilde’s grip on his chair strengthened and he felt the wood on the handles snap a little under his claws digging into the furniture as he felt increasingly threatened. The verbal crack of the wood caused bogo’s silence. “I understand, sir.”

“Good, this is your new priority one. I’m putting you and Hopps on it come morning briefing. You have thirty minutes to get fresh and think of a witty one liner. Now get out of my office and let us never talk about this again.”

Nick got up and left the room his legs still wobbling from the run. He walked down to the showers and started to strip off his clothing everything was like a storm in the red fox’s mind. A new Ombra? He had a few leads on that, but if he put anything out there to Judy he was sure he would get implicated, they needed a solid lead first, a species would narrow it down greatly.

They would be going up against the Big Family and that thought chilled him to the core. It was nice of Bogo to give him the heads up, because if he was given this job in public he may have done something or said something that would’vegave it all away. He was supposed to be past this, everything was so good. Then there was Judy; the reason he was still alive when it came to Mr Big. How would she react if she had ever found out about his past?

She was his best friend and nothing more. Anyone else he could ignore, but if she hated him for this, if she despised him for this kind of thing, he didn’t think he could survive. It was pretty much the end of their partnership. So of course, that meant that he just couldn’t let her find out.

Nick walked into the shower room stripping down as he was lost in thought. The hot water helped his muscles relax and for a moment his worries and anxieties passed him by. He could get over this, he could let it show that it didn’t get to him. He could take down this fake; this pretender who had taken his old mantel. There was a small amount of ego that went into this. He had stumped the ZPD before, he could do it again.

This new Ombra wouldn’t see a day in court, wouldn’t have the chance to get to him, and ruin his perfect life. He would get to them first. There was an old thrill he thought he had left behind and a rumble in his throat that pacified him. Words he hadn’t spoken in years came back to him in that moment. “Let the hunt begin.”

~~~

Seven o’clock and the alarm went off. Judy hopped up out ofher bed and was ready to greet the day. Her morning routine was to be ;up and at it’ before anyone else had even risen. It was the few hours of silence that her apartment ever got with her loud neighbors.

She had to admit that she loved this time of day, getting up and heading to the shared baths of her apartment. It was the only way she got any privacy, that she desperately wanted. She was the only bunny in these apartments and, while she was used to public baths considering her 257 brothers and sisters, it was different seeing other mammals in states of undress. She was still struggling with the memories of Mystic Springs Oasis, one day she would get Nick back for that.

Getting dressed, she was back in her apartment to pick up her stuff; clipping her badge to her uniform and checking herself out in the mirror. She checked her phone and sent a wake up text to Nick, as the lazy fox was probably just waking up.

“ **Time to go foxtrot** ”

She was surprised to see the immediate response. It wasn’t like Nick to be up before her and it immediately raised a red flag.

“ **You’re running late fluff already have your coffee it’s getting cold.** ”

An odd sense of annoyance rippled through her. Nick was never up before her let alone at work part of her wondered if she had missed some sort of callout but her phone had no missed messages. Wanting answers as to the early rising she decided she would ditch her usual morning run and instead go right to work getting dressed in her uniform before heading out for the day she caught the next train on the ZTA and headed into Savannah Central. From there it was just a quick jog to the lobby of the ZPD. 

Sure enough he was holding a Snarlbucks coffee ready for her. Nick was in a mild conversation with Ben and for a moment she considered leaving him to his fate, as he was clearly trying his best to humor the larger cat who was just going on and on about his favorite topic of the week. Gazelle again she had already toned it out.

“Sorry Ben, could I grab my partner.” Nick passed her a grateful glance. Handing her the now luke-warm Snarlbuck’s coffee. Nick had an odd look to him today, Judy wasn’t sure exactly what it was but something had him on edge.

When they got to the chair, she knew something was wrong. Nick and Judy had been sharing a chair since he had joined up. They had pretty well defined boundaries about who’s paws would go where while they shared this chair even though they had never really talked about it and today Nick was sitting on the edge of the seat as far away from Judy as he could manage it was another strange behavior that told her something was off.

When Bogo entered the room, she was sure she heard his heartbeat spike for a moment. The noise of tables being pounded on and rowdy cops all dying down around her, but the sound of slightly panicked breathing coming from her fox and the elevated heart rate she knew was associated with fear stayed. Nick had teased Bogo on multiple occasions but there was also something else to that relationship Bogo was the only person who could get Nick to shut up completely and it wasn’t out of respect, well at least not completely out of respect.

Judy had always assumed the two mammals had some sort of deal with one another, but she had never been able to prove it. Nick got a much wider leash than any other officer on the force, even herself. Nick listened to Bogo’s every word, when she had brought it up in conversation, once upon a time, it went about as well as you would expect that to go with Nick.

“What do you mean fluff, he’s the boss, his word is literally law. He’s still a mammal, you just need to know how to play at his heartstrings.” And many other dodges as to why Nick enjoyed the ability to talk back at their boss.

Judy was snapped from her thoughts about the past when she realized that Bogo was talking. “Priority one Officers, Ombra is back.”

Judy looked around the room and felt a lot of the older police officers shrink a little; some of their faces held shame, others anger or determination. The younger ones on the force, like her, were just kind of lost. In a moment of confusion, she didn’t even think to look to her left where a certain fox was shifting in his seat anxious to get this over with.

“Who’s Ombra?” Judy asked, not realizing she had spoken aloud as confusion seemed to grapple with the bunny.

“Big’s personal ‘liquidator’. If we get him, then we can finally get our paws on Arturo, last time he slipped through our grip. This time, we aren’t letting either of them get away.” Bogo started, “Wolford, you were heading the previous investigation, I want you to take Hopps and Wilde with you and pick up this case.”

“Sir, aren’t we a little green to be going up against a crime boss?” Wilde said, kind of hoping that would quell this all and make it go away, of course that was foolish. The three mammalteam were pushed out the door of the bullpen. Wolford looking at Nick and Judy looking at the ground.Nick was just vacant of all expression, “I’ll take that as a no.”

"The rest of you, we have reports of drugs flowing in from the rain forest district, Higgins, Delgato I want you out their with some of the rain-forest's K-9 team assist their sniffers and maybe we can close this up before we get a drug ring on our hands." The rest of Bogo's reports didn't really matter much to Judy as she started to look more at the paperwork then listen to her boss. 

Judy looked at her copy of the report and felt her stomach turn. She knew that this would happen, god mother to a crime boss’s granddaughter. Fru Fru may have been a good friend but Judy knew that eventually her job would bring her into conflict with her father. Arturo was not a good person either. Hell, he had nearly both her and Nick killed the first time they had met the arctic shrew.

So, why did she feel like she was betraying some part of her own family by taking this case? Of course, she hadn’t disclosed her connection to the Big family, that would have raised a lot of questions about if she could even do this job and, well,l the job was everything she had ever wanted now that she was a real cop.

Wolford brushed his long, white muzzle. The arctic wolf looked at Judy, then glared towards Nick for a moment. Regarding his two underlings, he had to question the wisdom of having Nick on this case. This had to be personal on some level, he looked at the fox, who seemed to be as distant as possible. “You goanna be okay with this one Wilde?personal history, this has to hurt a little, right?”

Nick sparked for a moment, his heart beating faster and he looked around trying to avoid eye contact with everyone else; realizing they hadn’t walked more than ten feet from where they had started. As he looked to Wolford for a moment, the lieutenant seemed all too familiar, _that had to be what ten no twenty years ago? at least. Has that much time really gone by?_

He took a deep breath as he realized he wasn’t being treated as a suspect. No, he was a victim of this long ago, right? “It’s an old wound, don’t need to worry about me, Barky.”

“Uh huh.” Wolford said nodding his head for a moment before just shrugging. “Well let’s get this underway. CSI’s already scrubbed the crime scene down for information and the morgue has the body,. So, that leaves us with very little to follow up on.”

“We could look at the past case files.” Judy said looking between the two older mammals, curious about what was going on. Of course, she had to guess that Nick had a history with Big, but now there was something with Wolford on top of that? Nick seemed to shrug at the suggestion, thenWolford looked to him.

“You sure you want her to see all of that?”

“It’s our job, she was going to find out this stuff, eventually.”

 _Okay seriously what is up with these two._ Judy’s foot was thumping hard against the floor as annoyance on the verge of anger was causing her ears to stand up on end at the moment.. “What is going on? What is this big deal with Ombra, and why are you acting weird?”

Wolford just shrugged and pushed the two along to his office. “I had records bring up all the old case files to my office, we can talk in there. It’s a little safer than talking right in the lobby.”

Nick had a dark cloud following him every step of the way, like some big secret was about to be revealed that would change everything,.Judy was just getting annoyed with all the cryptic behavior.

“Ombra haunted precinct one for almost two decades. He was Big’s top killer; the slick, uncatchable shadow over precinct one. The files we do have are of nine confirmed victims, but Ombra was suspected in over thirty murder cases. We’re dealing with one of the cities most loyal and hardest to catch contract killers.”

 _And she nearly got me for tax evasion when she was a meter maid._ it was the only comment he could think and it made him chuckle a little too himself.

“I was the original detective on the case and Wilde was involved in one of the first cases.” Judy looked at Nick for a moment, wondering what trouble he had involved himself in. He was immediately on the defensive.

“I was twelve, fluff, it’s not what you think.” Wolford rolled his eyes and worked through the case files finding what he was looking for. After a moment of searching, he pulls out the red case file,placing it gently into Judy’s paws. The single name and picture that was in the display seemed to make every single thing she knew about Nick Wilde change just a little more.

It was the picture of a red fox, Bogo hadn’t pulled it out back when he was being interrogated three months ago. He had been spared one awkward conversation at least as he knew that fox all too well and felt a small something at the back of his chest, it wasn’t regret he was long past those years. No it was more awkward almost gassy as he looked at what was Ombra’s first confirmed victim, a tailor from Happy Town named Johnathan Wilde.


	2. We Built This City

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again I would like to thank those that helped support me through writing this chapter, it is currently the longest one I have ever written. Special thanks again to my Beta's Det&r, and Drummermax64 for your input was very helpful.

_“I was twelve Fluff, it’s not what you think.”_

Twenty Two Years ago

“Sales, Nick, it’s all about talking to people. It’s about convincing them that you have a service they need and that you do it better than anyone one else in the world.” Johnathan Wilde stood in front of his son adjusting his tie as he looked at himself in the mirror. The fox was aged, specks of grey touching his once bright red and cream fur going darker with time. His green eyes however held and commanded a man’s respect. His frame was lithe some would say even slightly frail or perhaps too thin, but was also taller than even his own son would grow to be.

Nick sat on the counter, eating up his father’s words. The ten-year-old fox had been pulled out of school when he was found trying to hustle some of the kids in his class for their lunch money with an old cup and ball gambling trick. He had been doing well up until a bear in his class had lost the game a few too many times for his liking. Nick still couldn’t smell all that well, but the doctors said his muzzle would make a full recovery in time.

After that day, his dad had decided that if he couldn’t give his child a traditional education, he would immerse him fully into the family business. Suitopia’s window now clearly read Wilde and Son. The older fox had done everything from teaching his boy how to stitch clothing to how to set his prices up for services rendered. and of course given him all the rundown of how to properly talk and engage with a customer.

“The silver tongue of a fox is worth more than the strength of any bear Nick. It’s a gift we must use to survive. In the urban jungle, if you can talk and cover your debts, you can thrive.” He finished adjusting his look and puffed out his chest. “Which is why today we are going to meet our investors. It’s time you met the Big players in this city.”

Nick seemed unsure but got to his feet, like his father he had dressed up in his best clothing. Walking outside into the harsh morning light, he had to shelter his eyes for a moment before his dad pulled out a pair of sunglasses for him. “They say the early bird gets the worm, so it’s important to start your days early Nick. That means getting a set of these. We can’t afford to be nocturnal in today’s market.”

When Nick’s eyes had adjusted, he saw a car unlike any he had ever seen in Happy Town, with a large Polar bear just standing and waiting for them with the car door open. “Koslov! It’s good to see you, have you met my son.”

~~~

Nick was brought back to the present by a furious thumping on the ground. Unsure what he was hearing for a moment he turned towards Judy who was holding the picture of his father. Thankfully, it didn’t show the crime scene or what he had been like the last time Nick had seen his father, but rather it was a glamour shot of an older looking gentile fox. It was the same one that had been used at his wake back when they had buried him.

The only ones who had shown up to that funeral were Nick and his mother. Honest John had been the love of the town when he was alive, but his legacy had burned quickly the moment after he was gone. No one had given a second glance at his son or his widow.

_Oh, that reminds me, gotta call mom, her birthday is coming up. Probably should send flowers now that we are on speaking terms again._

“Yes fluff?” He asked, after letting the rabbit wait just a little longer than was probably appropriate. He could tell by her exasperation that she was making connections. How could he work with the mammal that ordered his father to be killed?

_Easily_

How could he not tell her about something like this? When she had elected to be the godmother of Fru-Fru’s child.

_Well it’s not any of your business is it._

For her part, the silent back and forth that Nick was imagining seemed to continue as Judy glared at him. “Johnathan Wilde was not a great mammal, Fluff. Forgive me if I don’t react all that much to this but it’s old news to me. I mean like the date on this was what… twenty years ago?”

He plucked the file out Judy’s hands for a moment and whistled as he looked at the date on the file. He turned to Wolford. “What does that make you, like forty or fifty years old, Barky? Shouldn’t you be chief of a precinct or like… retired?”

Wolford answered Nick’s question with a deep heavy growl that told Nick he had just touched a sour spot. He was going to store that information away for use on another day.

Judy was looking around the room exasperated. “How are you not mad about this?I mean, if someone had my father killed, I would hunt them to the ends of the earth. you are just standing there looking at me like I’m the weird one.”

“Because you are, Carrots. The fact is there are more important things in this world than revenge.” As Nick got up from his chair, Judy only seemed to get angrier. It may have been theindifference he was showing or potentially at the way he was brushing it off and making things lighter by the humor in his voice; either way he didn’t want to stand around in Wolford’s office all day.

“Who wants coffee? I’ll go get us some coffee.” Nick said, evading another round of questions from Judy as he walked out the door and left her in a clear state of confusion. When the door clicked closed behind him and he could no longer hear Judy and Wolford he let out a long sigh wishing he could just turn around and tell Judy everything. He had no doubt that it would be rather difficult a conversation.

Walking into the break room, he let out a long sigh, just getting away from Judy was enough for him to clear his head a little. He hadn’t expected anything like this in becoming a cop. He probably should have known better. Big was a crime lord, and while this had probably been inevitable, to find out that he would be investigating his old life was still a bit of a shock. His paws were shaking slightly as he grabbed the mugs.

“What is wrong with you!” Nick yelped when he turned to see the grey rabbit, dropping the mugs so that they shattered into several pieces. He clutched his chest and had to wonder just how she had followed him without him hearing her. “I’m guessing that you got an early warning about this case from the chief, which is why you were so early today. I know this case must seem difficult for you Nick, but honestly you should talk to me.”

“Judy, do we have to do this? Especially out here.” He gestured to the empty break-room. Judy glanced around the room and immediately turned her glare back towards Nick. He knew he couldn’t lie to her. She was the mammal that always seemed to get under his defenses and get the answers she wanted. He could at least try to delay till they were in their own office, or some place the other cops couldn’t randomly walk in on.

“Fine you want to do this then we can do this and you can ask me all the questions you want, but let’s get back to our office first.”

Their walk away from the break room was a short brisk one. Their office wasn’t really an office but rather an unused room the two had found in records and then moved into without permission.

“Why did Big have your father killed? How did you end up working for him if you knew that?” She finally blurted the question that had been on her mind for the past hour or two. Nick just gave a casual shrug. 

“Why let a petty thing like patricide get in the way of good business, Fluff. Why did I do anything when I was young? I wanted cash and I wanted a place of respect, after my father died, I got both. The world wasn’t going to miss Johnathan Wilde. So did I know that Big had him killed? Of course I did. I was young not stupid.” Nick threw up his arms defensively for a moment and Judy just looked at him dumbfounded for a few moments. Silence drifted around the room as Nick felt like he was in a glass room about to shatter. Like everything he had built up over the last year was about to cave in and self destruct with these questions.

“Why?” Judy mouthed, and for a moment Nick was worried that he was saying a little too much. “Why did Big have him killed, Nick?”

~~~

“Nicky, I have a favor to ask of you.” Mr Big’s table, while small, seemed a lot bigger than he was used to. Normally he would only come to this place when he had been with his father, but things were starting to get tense at home because money was tight. He had set up a little side business with another fox from Happy Town and the two of them had started raking in more cash than his father, but increasingly he found himself here.

It was the language Big used that Nick really liked. He had liked it since that first trip into Tundra Town two years ago when he had first met Big. The food Grand-mama made was a bonus, but the crime boss had a way of talking that made the kid in Nick feel more welcome. While he still couldn’t be part of a proper pack like he had always wanted; with Big, he could at least have a place where he felt like he was trusted. “What do you need, sir?”

“I hate to bring these family matters onto someone so young, but I feel you are the only mammal I can trust with this Nicky. I wouldn’t ask you to do this without knowing that doing so will be a favor for which you will have my eternal gratitude.”

That caused Nick’s ears to perk up. A trusted task that only he could do. He pushed the empty plate away from him and gave Big his full attention, placing his paws on his lap he bowed his head. “Of course, you know I would do anything for a place at your table, Mr.Big.”

“Then let us talk about your place in our family.” The shrew’s grin becoming more vicious after a moment knowing that he had just sealed the deal with this fox.

~~~  
Silence reigned through the room after a moment. When Nick returned from his thoughts. The distant memories feeling like it was from several life times ago.

“Because Johnathan broke the rules and stole from Big. I don’t know what he stole, it was never found. Big never forgave him and I was kept close after that. At first, I thought it was out of respect for all that I could do for him. The truth was Big never really trusted me. Everything I got was filtered. I was part of the organization, but I was never told anything real or substantial; I just did my jobs and made my contacts. Whatever my dad stole, it colored every interaction that I had with Big after that.” Nick dropped into his chair and looked at Judy. He looked defeated for a moment as his green eyes glazed over with memories of a life long past him.

“I thought I had a place at Big’s table; that I could be part of the family. In the end, it was just another lie to keep me silent, so I arranged a few more deals and one particularly offensive rug later, I was free. Back on the streets with a considerable pay cut and the knowledge that I was never going to be allowed back in Tundra Town.” At this point, Nick was more interested in the wall then looking at Judy. If it hadn’t been for her saving Fru Fru’s life, he would have been found floating up the river like several of Big’s other victims. He was all too aware of just how close to death he had come that night.

Judy was now all too aware of the raw feelings her partner was having. She had never seen Nick look so dejected and it killed the anger and annoyance that she had been feeling all morning towards him. Of course, Bogo had given him a heads up. This was clearly a painful part of his history, which of course made their assignment to it all the stranger. “Would, you like me to tell Bogo to reassign us?”

“No.” Nick waved her off and part of her knew that Bogo wouldn’t really re-assign them to another case. This was where Nick needed to be. In all honesty, this job offered him some closure on something that must have bothered him for a while. Judy just raised a paw and placed it on his arm giving it a light squeeze.

“Nick, we will find the mammal who did this. We can bring them to justice together.” Judy thought her words would bring Nick some sort of comfort but instead she felt him pull away from his paw and take a sharp intake of breath, as he stood up moving towards the window. He quickly opened it, like he needed some fresh air. The crisp winds of spring hit him along with all the scents and sounds of the city.

“Sorry Fluff, but it’s not like we have any leads to go on yet. Till we have something concrete, it must remain a mystery.” Judy’s ears perked at that. It almost sounded like he wanted things to remain a mystery, but that was just silly. Why wouldn’t he want the mammal that had hurt him and his family? A thought passed her, it was just for a moment, but this was Big’s liquidator. She was part of the ‘family’, godmother to the crime boss’s grandchild, she had to outrank some contract killer. All she had to do was ask.

“Let’s call Big.” She reached for her phone and started digging through her contacts. The red paw came so fast outside of her field of vision she hardly had time to react as her phone was yanked away and thrown over Nick’s shoulder. “Hey!”

“Are you crazy? You want to just call the crime lord and ask him for what? A name?” Nick had gone from despondent to completely bewildered for a moment, as he looked at the rabbit. His eyes twitching as their faces were mere inches apart, so close that Judy could smell the morning coffee still on his breath. He looked like he was about ready to maul her and yet Judy was more concerned for her phone then her own safety. After all, this was Nick, he would never actually strike her.

“If that phone’s screen is cracked, you’re paying for the replacement.” Judy said, more matter of fact than anything else. “And, yes, after all; I’m little Judy’s godmother. Big loves me, he would be all too happy-“

“. . . to implicate himself in a murder investigation? To tell a cop that he had hired a mammal to kill a member of his own criminal organization? What Fluff? What would Big be all too happy to do?” Nick’s posture calmed down after a moment of intense glaring.

“You call that number and I will tell you exactly what happens. You will get a name.” _My name to be exact._ Nick’s ranting did little to dissuade the determined look that Judy had, so he took a breath, putting his palm over his face for a moment.

“Okay, let’s say that you call up our favorite crime lord and he sells out his own hired killer. So what happens next? We then have to convince Bogo to chase down a lead where the only testimony is from the man who hired him to kill a mammal. So, whoopsie number one, there is no evidence and no way to hold them for more than twenty-four hours. Whoopsie number two, you would owe Big a favor which he will collect at some point down the line; and whoopsie number threesy, even if you did manage to gather enough evidence to convict our mystery mammal, they wouldn’t live to see trial. People who talk to the police end up dead, just look at Kevin.”

That cracked the shell and Judy went from heavy determination to a sigh, her ears drooping as she realized that Nick was right. Big wasn’t the answer here. He would never implicate himself in an ongoing murder investigation and the rodent did so much charity and community work in Tundra Town that he was pretty much untouchable. If they wanted to go after this contract killer, they would be doing it without the aid of the crime lord. If anything, they would be going directly against him and his criminal empire.

She flopped into her chair and looked at Nick, wanting him to give her an answer as to where they went from here. Nick picked up her phone and when he was sure she wouldn’t call the number, he tossed it back to her.

Sitting in silence for a long moment, Judy wasn’t at all sure what she should actually be saying or doing at this moment. There was probably paperwork that the two of them could have caught up on while they waited for the forensic teams, but Judy felt more like she had lost the will to work at this point.

“Nick what-“, Judy was cut off by a knock on the door when Wolford entered, looking a little disgruntled as he glared at the two of them.

“So, this is where you two went off to hide. I just want to point out that I never got my coffee.” Wolford said with a slightly annoyed glance towards Nick before dropping another folder onto the table. “They completed Kevin’s examination. The forensic team was able to recover enough of the bullet that we now know it matches the calibre and make used by Ombra in the nine other assassinations that they were implicated in.”

“No surprise there, I mean how many guns are actually on the streets of Zootopia?” Nick asked with a slight curiosity. Gun control was rather strict, even the police only had access to tranquilizers. The most common form of self defense were repellents and tasers. No lethal self defense companies, like _Fox Away_ , ran a vicious campaign to make sure the streets stayed free of guns, and thus full of repellent. He had to admit that he hated the company but he respected the hustle.

The gun Nick had used all the way back then was an old piece. Big had told him that it was a family heirloom. He would receive it from a wooden box when he was given a name, and when the job was done, he would put it back in the same box for safe keeping. Big kept it on his estate locked away in some secret compartment, which had a code lock. He had probably changed the code from when Nick used it, but It only made sense that this new Ombra would get to use the same family heirloom.

Wolford just rolled his eyes at the fox, but he held up the paperwork to show that there was more. “Kevin didn’t die so easily it seems. He got a swipe in on his attacker, they found some blood and fur under his claws.”

Judy’s ears shot straight up as that meant they had a species! It was perhaps the best news that she could have gotten all day on a case like this. As soon as they knew what species the assassin was, they could start narrowing down the list of suspects.

“The lab ran our blood sample, but didn’t come up with anything in the criminal database. S,o sadly it’s not someone we have tagged before, but the fur came back from the labs identified as a Vulpes Vulpes.” Wolford couldn’t have looked more pleased with himself, but Judy felt like something struck her in the stomach. Why did it have to be fox fur? Any other species would have been less close to home and as she turned her gaze towards Nick, she watched his mouth hang open.

“Of course, we can’t get more but now we can profile just about any fox in the city, they’re easy targets.” Wolford went on practically rolling his eyes. Nick growled for a moment but the displeasure of the other two officers didn’t register with him. “All we need to do is find a fox who was an associate of Mr.Big, get access to their bank accounts and, boom, we would have a case that we can start building.”

Nick shifted uncomfortably and already Judy could see why. If they were looking at red foxes that had dealings with Mr Big in the past that would easily lead back to him. Judy gave a sigh, watching him seem to shrink in his chair, getting access to his accounts would basically hit him for the one thing she had nearly caught him for. Judy was the first to speak up, her tone quickly picking apart Wolfords plan. 

“Well, it’s a plan if you want to profile half the fox’s in this city.” Judy gave a shrug. “Personally, I’d like to think that most of them are more honest than that. So how about instead of looking at easy targets, we check with hospitals for anyone that has been admitted for clawing injuries. Or we could check the crime scene for any additional evidence that might help us to ID the red fox.”

Judy got up and started to walk towards the door. She sent a quick glare towards Wolford and Nick, who was starting to get to his feet. He sent her a grateful smile and she seemed to beam at that. Of course, it made her a little more wary that the killer was a red fox, but Nick had been with her during the night of the attack while they were working for the police. Nick may have been a good hustler, but there was no way he could be in two places at once.

More than that, she was now starting to develop a theory as to why Wolford hadn’t moved up much in rank over the past twenty years. Maybe it was just naivety talking, but she could have sworn that she saw glee in Wolford eyes when he made Nick shrink up. For the moment, she would put it aside, she had a little more to worry about then possible prejudices against her partner it wasn’t like they weren’t used to it. Plus, Nick did bring a lot of that onto himself.

~~~

Judy was the first one out of the police cruiser, her feet crunching in the snow sending a chill up the rest of her body. The ride had been less than pleasant as a dark silence hung over all three of them as they each tried to deal with the new case. She had never heard Nick more silent then he was now, though part of that she assumed was due to the comments made by Wolford. Judy was willing to chalk up all the oddities in Nick’s behavior to the fact that they were hunting his father's killer.

As the day progressed, they surveyed the place where Kevin was shot. However, there wasn’t much to see here. It probably wasn’t even the primary crime scene, rather a dumping ground in the middle of a back-alley way. There wasn’t enough blood for it to be the primary crime scene and part of Judy was grateful for that; the smell here even after the CSI had finished their primary investigation was hurting her nose. The cold air wasn’t doing much for her normally spring coat.

Looking across the alleyway to the street, it was a dead end; one side cut off with a chain link fence, meaning that they had to dump him from the street. “We have drag marks, so they probably drove up to the curb, pulled him out of a trunk and dropped him.”

Nick gave a small nod, but didn’t say anything. He was too busy sniffing the air. Curiously, she turned to him for a moment. “What is it boy?! You get a good sniff of something?”

She patted her knees jokingly, trying to cheer Nick up. His response was to raise a finger and drop down to all fours. Just because mammals could run around like that didn’t mean it wasn’t awkward to watch one of her friends do it, As he started to sniff the ground, she couldn’t help but suppress a giggle. Wolford walked over to them, apparently not aware of the smell.

“Nick, what are you sniffing at?” Wolford asked. Judy's ears perked up at the question and she tried sniffing the air only to to get the base smells of a cold Tundra Town morning. She found it odd that Wolford didn't pick up on whatever Nick was, after all a wolf's nose was supposed to be much stronger then a fox's.

“Can’t you smell that, Barky? Shouldn’t it be clear to your nose?” Nick said rolling his eyes, not sure if he was joking or just insulting him at this point. 

“No, actually, during a case a few years back I got hit with a bad batch of homemade repellent. My nose got infected and had to have surgery that cost a fortune. I lost my sense of smell as a result, hence why I’m not on the sniffer list anymore. So what did you sniff up Prick Wilde.” Wolford gave a shrug and Judy felt a small amount of pain for the older officer, even though the older cop was practically growling at Nick at this point.

“The ground where Kevin was found has a heavy dose of a female’s perfume. It’s all over the place, actually like someone practically bathed in the stuff.” Judy tried her best to sniff the air, but her nose was already going numb in the Tundra Town air.

“Well that is… odd, why don’t we have that in our reports? All of Ombra’s previous crimes used male cologne to cover their natural scent, we even had the brand nailed down.” Wolford looked around for a moment and gave a frustrated sigh. “Excuse me, I need to make a call to headquarters about this, CSI didn’t send a sniffer. Someone half-assed my crime scene.”

Judy looked at Nick, who just gave a shrug as Wolford headed back to the car. “Okay, so now that the big, bad wolf is gone, what is up between you two? I know you can get on peoples nerves Nick, but I’ve never seen you actually be aggressive with anyone.”

“I think it’s just the comment he made about foxes being easy targets, I know the whole ‘never let them see’ motto, but I promised myself that I would work on stopping that. It’s not a motto I can have here.” he gave Judy a small smile and a shrug. At this point there wasn’t anything more he could say.

Judy just nodded knowing that Nick needed time to adjust to the setting, but that he could still be great when the time called for it. Nick sniffed one more time. “I know this brand. I just can’t. . . ”

Nick’s ears went straight up as a memory hit him, something that caused him to wobble for a moment as he seemed to actually relive something. His eyes seemed to go off into the distance, looking at the snow. Nick moved slowly towards Judy when he started to walk back to her. His ears were down and as he stood up his tail sagged along the ground. leaning against the wall Judy had never seen Nick look so miserable in her life.

“Nick, what is it?” Judy asked moving closer to him, wanting to put out a paw to comfort him like she had earlier.

“That’s Samantha’s perfume.” Nick spoke as if the words held a deep meaning, but Judy just had her head flop to the side. Who was Samantha? Why hadn’t she heard this name before? Why was she suddenly jealous or angry at Nick? Why had the outstretched hand that was meant to comfort him suddenly ball up into a fist and give him a ‘playful’ punch in the arm? “Ow! Fluff, what was that for.”

“Who’s Samantha, Nick?” Her breath was catching like she was about to have some sort of panic attack and the answer she got back was certainly not the one she was expected.

“My wife.”

~~~

Judy slammed the front door of her apartment. “He’s married!” Judy had been so flabbergasted by that single sentence that she had just stopped listening to Nick. She had basically just turned around and gone back to the precinct. Wolford called back in the CSI units for a do over so they weren’t going to find anything till tomorrow and then she would have to look at that smug **married** fox’s face.

“Oh, hey Fluff, sorry for not telling you at any point over the last year and a half I’ve known you but yeah I had a wife the whole time! Who knew!” 

How? How did she not know about this? She had been on the phone with him every night during his run at the academy and apparently he had been married through all of that; not that Judy had ever seen a ring on his finger!

She was worked up and angry and she didn’t even know why! This was critical information, something she should have known about Nick. “What if he died in the line of duty? What was I supposed to do. Go to the funeral and be like ‘Oh hi Ms Wilde. Sorry you’re a widow. He never mentioned you!’”

She gripped her ears and let out a frustrated scream.

“Hey, what’s wrong with the bunny?” Bucky’s voice echo’d through the thin wall of her apartment adding yet another drop of anger into her already overflowing bucket of rage.

“Oh, she just found out that she’s the side girl.” Judy’s mouth hung open at Pronk’s words. She wanted to scream or say something in retort but just stood idle by as the final line came from Bucky. “Ooh, that’s gotta be rough! Sorry, bunny cop.”

Judy blushed, _why are these walls so crap?_ Judy couldn’t handle it, she just threw herself at the bed and grabbed the pillow to scream in it. She couldn’t remember a single moment where she had been angrier with Nick. She wanted to strangle him and, at the same time, there was another feeling there, too.

Something she was much to angry to think about at the moment. So, she pushed it aside and just focused on the burning hate she had for the color red at the moment.

Her phone buzzed and she wanted to ignore it. She wanted to be done for the day, but she knew it was probably important. Grabbing her phone, she muttered something obscene to herself thinking that if this was Nick, she was going to kill him tomorrow. So when she saw it was an unknown number, she blinked looking at it, till it had rung a total of three times. Finally she hit answer.

“Officer-“

“Shush please.” The voice was faintly familiar but she couldn’t really place it at the same time. It was panicked and sounded like static, it took a moment to realize that whoever was calling was doing so via phone booth and not a cellphone.

“I know why they killed Kevin, but I can’t leave this with anyone else. You're my only hope. Meet me at Savannah Central Gardens tonight at 10, and I will tell you everything.” Before Judy could answer, she heard the phone click and the line went silent. She blinked, looking at her cellphone. Oh, that wasn’t ominous at all. Nope, definitely not the kind of thing someone receives when they are about to be murdered.

Judy looked around for a moment. She had two options. She could either go to this meeting in her off time, which would mean running a dangerous operation on her own when one of Big's liquidators were out for blood, or she could call her partner. It was a little past five now so if she hurried they had four hours to figure this out.

Judy got up knowing the right thing to do. Bogo had already warned her once about not doing the ‘lone soldier’ thing ever again. After the Bellweather case and all the collateral damage She and Nick had ended up causing there had been more then a few talks about restraint and playing things by the rules.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> considering how fast everything went in the first chapter this one is more or less everyone standing around and talking. The pacing on this one is a lot slower but hey we had like 3 big reveals here. Nick's dad introduced him to Big, The new Ombra is a Red Fox as well, and at one point Nick was married.
> 
> comment round up:  
> Max if there was any vagueness before let it be known here and now Nick was most certainly Ombra at the time of Johnathan Wilde's death.
> 
> Raynos, what does Wolford know? does he know things? we will eventually find out. For now I'm just enjoying using him as some world building.
> 
> Chapter 1 & 2 were both very Wilde centered as we did a lot of set up next chapter we are going to dive into some of Judy's struggles.


	3. Bad Company

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay first off big thanks to YFWE for being my Beta on this chapter. 
> 
> So about the delay in getting this out I don't try to keep any kind of permanent scheduel as I've done that and burned out far to many times this is something I work on in my free time when I have the chance to do so. So I am trying my best not to think of the weeks between chapters being put up as delays so much as my life only allows me to write when i don't have to balance both work and school.
> 
> That said I have one big and really important announcement to make. This story is now featured on ZNN, and I can't even tell you how much that means to me. Before I was writing Nick and Judy, I was writing fan fiction for MLP, I often submitted my work to EQD, and got back reviews like "why are you trying. Stop writing this garbage."
> 
> So to actually be a part of a fandom and have my stuff on a site like ZNN is a huge deal to me.

Judy sighed in frustration as she put down the phone. She had arranged with the others in her team to meet up at the park at 8:45; they had stitched together a neat little plan and that meant she had to go back to work. Late shift plus morning shift meant sleep was going to be a foreign concept to her today.

“Just means that we will put in for a day or two off after the case is over,” she said, looking at herself with her mirror as she tried to stay positive about the situation. They had a lead now, she was going to meet with that lead and, with Nick and Wolford at her side, she was going to crack this case wide open and catch a killer.

That last part thrilled her. Not so much because it was another high-profile case under her belt but because it was exotic. It was something out of the police serials she used to watch as a kid; contract killers weren’t exactly a dime a dozen and actual murder was as rare as they came. There was an odd sort of romanticism between her work and hitmen in popular fiction. Of course, the reality was hardly ever the clean-suit-wearing, will-do-anything-for-the-right-price kind of mammal, rather they were just murderers that came in every shape and size imaginable, and contract killers like this Ombra were excessively rare.

Still, Judy couldn’t help but be a little excited, even if that excitement was horribly misplaced. As she eyed her pantry for a moment, she wondered if she had time to make anything. She had a small minifridge, which was pretty much perfect for her apartment size, and a hot plate. She had learned to shop down a size when it came to the needs of her apartment and the space she could use. Yes, it meant that she could store slightly less stuff, but the overall use of space meant she had more comfort.

Judy decided on a quick use of greens from her mini fridge going for a very basic vegetable stir-fry, and it was as she was making it that she heard three heavy knocks on her door. The pounding almost knocked the door off its hinges. Judy paused as she looked at the door, and then, moving to it, she quickly slid a chain over the door and checked the peephole. She didn’t see much the hallway; outside seemed dark, as if whomever was standing outside was blocking the light. She jumped back when she felt another set of three knocks vibrate through the small apartment.

Moving to her nightstand Judy pulled out a small pink bottle. She had stopped carrying it publicly months ago, but the city had also taught her not to be stupid about her life choices. The old saying went, “trust but verify,” and while she wanted to believe in the best this city had to offer, she was currently investigating a murder and had seen her fair share of crime scenes to make her a tad more paranoid than she had been when she had first stayed in the city. While it probably wouldn’t be a fox that killed her, she certainly wasn’t going to stay in one of the city’s slums without self protection.

Opening the door but keeping its chain on so that the door would not open completely, she felt immediately justified as she was greeted with the obscenely tall visage of Koslov. For a moment, she wondered if this was Ombra come to attack. Her heartbeat sped up and her ears stood straight as she looked up at one of the largest mammals that she knew. But the silence was followed by an all-too-familiar voice that helped to calm her nerves. “Ju-Ju!”

“Fru?” 

She glanced toward Koslov’s open paw, where Fru-Fru was standing in a long red sundress with a floral pattern trim, her hair neatly done up like she had just gotten out of an appointment at the salon.

“Sorry for bugging you, I just had to check in on you. Mind if I...” she gestured to the larger bunny and Kolsov, and Judy nodded, holding out her paws as Fru-Fru made a quick jump into them. “We will just be a few minutes, Kolzy.”

The larger bear just nodded and seemed to walk down the hall as Judy closed the door. “Kolzy. Really?”

“Oh, he’s a sweet teddy bear once you get to know him, really, but I just had to check in with you. Things have been going crazy at my dad’s estate, and I just had to drop in on my favorite coppa.” 

Judy placed Fru-Fru down on her table and put away the small pink bottle. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding onto as she was now dealing with Fru-Fru rather than an enemy.

“Well, I can’t really let you stay long I have to get back to work soon, actually,” As Judy spoke she moved around her room and cleaning her room now that she had company. This could be a good way to get information out of the Big family. If she could get any information on Ombra then they would have an additional lead to follow up on after that night’s outing to Savannah Central Park. “So, what’s going on in the house that you felt you had to come here?”

“I don’t know much, Ju-Ju; you know I tend to let Daddy handle the business side of things. I know he’s been furious lately. But who cares about that old news -- I’m sure you know about as much as I do when it comes to my daddy’s work. What about you and our favorite fox? What’s the story, come on girl, dish.”

With Fru-Fru changing the subject Judy had to give a bit of a huff. She didn’t like being pushed aside, and she didn’t really want to talk about Nick right now. Finding out he was married had been bad enough. She sat down at the seat for a moment, silent as her ears drooped.

“That bad, huh, girl?” Fru said, giving one of her paws a reassuring pat as she stood on Judy’s table.

Judy groaned and put her head on the table. “Did you know he was married?”

That stopped Fru-Fru, who pulled away from Judy, and an awkward glance at the ground told the rabbit that the shrew already knew about it, and her depression quickly turned to anger. “You knew!”

“Of course I knew, Judy!” The use of her real name always stopped Judy in her tracks, be it with Nick or Fru-Fru; why was it her two best friends rarely ever actually used her name? But what was more was the bluntness with which she admitted that she knew Nick was married when not ten seconds prior she was trying to get the two of them set up. 

“Ju-Ju, Nick used to babysit me,” she continued. “He was part of my family before I even met my husband. I’ve known Nicky since I was seven or eight, that would have been about seventeen years ago. So I basically know everything about his past.”

Judy blinked for a moment; how had that not come up in their conversations? Nick knew Fru-Fru because he was part of her family, and yet somehow her two best friends had never spoken about this fact before. Judy felt a small amount of anger for suddenly being an outcast. 

“Then what’s the story with his wife?” Judy asked with renewed energy.

“I can’t tell you that, Ju-Ju. I mean, if Nick told you he was married it should really be him who tells you what happened.” As Fru spoke, she seemed all the more nervous to Judy.

Judy could of course understand that if Nick didn’t want his past to be known she shouldn’t be going to outside sources, but at the same time the curiosity was going to eat at her now. Was he divorced? Nick hadn’t exactly called her an ex-wife. Widow? Looking back, she had never been to or had even seen Nick’s apartment, so it wasn’t like there were photos of his past she could look into. She supposed that she could pull up his file at the ZPD, but even that felt invasive when she knew the best way to confront any of this was to just talk to Nick Wilde himself. It was a conversation that she was now dreading, but she knew would need to have to happen.

For now Judy had to put that inevitable conversation aside since she had her friend in her room. She set up a cup of tea and sat down at her table, wanting to move onto less challenging topics, and so the two ran through just about everything that didn’t involve her work, sitting in idle chatter and enjoying the relaxing effect of each other's company for a few hours.

“Thanks, Fru. Anyway, I need you to go; I have to get ready to get back to work.” She leaned in to kiss the shrew’s cheek and pick her up, opening the door so that she could hand her back to Koslov.

“Why are you going back anyway? I thought you were on the day shift,” Fru-Fru asked, but Judy just put her paw on her hip, leaning against the door, taking a deep breath and reciting the line that she had been taught to say in moments like this.

“I cannot comment on ongoing investigations, Fru-Fru.”

The shrew rolled her eyes and let out a long sigh. “Fine, leave a girl in the dark, why don’t you? Anyway, I will let you go, but we simply must schedule a spa day soon.”

“My next day off, I promise,” the rabbit gave her a wink before closing the door. She took a moment to breathe as she leaned against the door, trying to put her thoughts in order and get ready for going back to work. She lamented the fact that Fru-Fru had shown up unannounced, but at the same time was all too happy to have seen a friend in the midst of all the chaos caused in the past twenty-four hours.

Unfortunately, she was about to head right back into it.

~~

Nick yawned as he sat shotgun in an undercover car that was a comfortable size for his living class. Leaning back in his seat he listened to the sound of rain pattering across the metal roof. Sergeant Wolford was in the driver’s seat, the car’s engine off. Savanna Central Park was pitch dark thanks to the cloak of rain, but the two predators were fine thanks to their night vision.

They were easily able to see Judy as she sat outside on a bench under a raincoat and umbrella. Nick wasn’t a fan of sitting idly by while his partner was out in the action, but the phone call had made it clear that Judy was the only one who could be trusted. Still, the silence in the car was deafening as he hadn’t spoken to the wolf since their talks at the crime scene earlier that morning.

“So, what’s up with you and the bunny, anyway?” asked Wolford finally.

Nick absolutely did not want to have this conversation, butt he was stuck -- and they couldn’t play the radio, so it wasn’t like he had anything better to do. _Just half an hour more and we can call it a night when this guy doesn’t show._

“She’s a good friend, helped me to see I could make more of a difference in the world.” Nick made sure to keep his eyes forward.

“So it’s not romantic?”

Nick wanted to scoff; why was everyone in this precinct so sure that he was going to be romantically involved with Judy? Couldn’t two mammals just be friends, and couldn’t he just admire his friend’s cute little tail from a distance? _Besides, it’s better if I don’t get attached to her. People I get attached to leave, and they don’t come back._ “No, it’s not. Why, do you want her?”

“Oh, no I’m not like that.” Wolford’s reaction was immediate and reflexive. “I mean, if you’re a preyo, that’s fine, but it’s not for me.”

Nick had to take a deep breath at that one. Normally he could let anything brush off his skin, but Carrots got to him in a way that few other mammals had. There was some part of his gut that wanted to pounce on Wolford and attack his superior officer in his smug face, but years of discrimination had taught him better. Still, he would rather choose silence over continuing this conversation; unfortunately, he didn’t have that choice because Wolford, sensing that he had started digging a hole in the dirt, decided it needed to be much, much bigger.

“I mean, how would that even work? We have teeth and claws that were designed to rip them apart. Being on the force as long as I have, you see things, and responding to calls it’s just not a pretty site to have to witness. I’m sure there are ways to do it safely.” Wolford’s voice droned on and on, burying him deeper and deeper into Nick’s list of people he never wanted to be stuck on a stakeout with ever again, but all he could focus on was the rabbit outside of the car shivering in the rain. _Should I get her a better jacket? She can’t be comfortable out there._

“Wolford, how have you managed to remain single?” Nick asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he rolled his eyes.

“Oh, I’m not,” Wolford said, pulling out his phone. He was quick to show Nick several photos of another arctic wolf, a female who was probably twenty years younger than Wolford. She was fluffy, had bright blue eyes and currently lacked any shred of clothing in the photos Wolford was showing off. Nick blinked, a look of genuine shock coming over him as he both hadn’t expected Wolford to be taken, let alone to get a front row seat to an attractive feminine figure. “She’s a bartender. And hot as hell, frankly.” 

Nick blinked and pulled his attention away from the phone for a moment to check up with Judy. “Actually, you mind if I step out”

“Yes, sure, it’s not like this contact is going to show up; they are already an hour late.” Wolford said rolling his eyes as Nick opened the door. "Hey you mind if I give my girlfriend a call?" 

"Knock yourself out _buddy._ "Nick was all too happy to get rid of Wolford when he stepped out of the car and into the rain his ears twitching at the sounds of the park that he couldn't pic up back when he had been in the car. His breath forming quick vapors as he looked over at Judy keeping eyes forward and ignoring the wolf behind him.

~~

Judy breathed into her paws for a moment, watching her breath form vapors in the air. The rainstorm had basically ruined any chance of this being some fun night, and of course she got stuck out in the rain instead of the nice warm car. The contact was supposed to be there at midnight, but it was now one in the morning, and she was sure she was going to get sick.

Or perhaps she was going to drown. She wasn’t entirely sure if she could drown from the rain, but she knew her fur would never be dry again. 

She was about ready to head in; checking her watch, she realized she was going to end up taking tomorrow off. She was pretty much out of overtime hours, so this was counting as her next shift. _Just call it already, Wolford, I want to sleep!_

And drink hot soup, gods, she wanted soup.

“Psst.” 

Judy’s ears immediately flipped upwards as she turned towards the noise, her nose twitching. The rain dampened her sense of smell, and the dark and rain made her vision blur slightly, but she could still see the shadow that was beckoning to her. She got up and slowly walked towards the tree. She was nervous walking towards the smaller figure but seeing and recognizing the shape of an old friend was only confirmed the closer and closer Judy got.

“Emmitt?” She quickly went forward and was embraced by the florist She hadn’t seen him in months, but right now Emmitt was a welcomed sight to behold.

“Judy, I’m sorry for pulling you out like this; the weather network said it was supposed to be clear skies, but they never get Savanna Central right.” Unlike every other part of the city, the weather there wasn’t controlled, and the heat from Sahara Square and the cold from Tundra Town often mixed there and caused all kinds of chaos in weather. While Downtown was the most moderate climate in the city, it was also the most likely to be racked with real weather problems.

“It’s fine, Otterton, but why bring me out here in the first place? I mean, I’ve been to your house.”

~~

Nick watched from behind the car at the exchange, relaxing when he saw who the otter was. That made sense; Otterton was someone Nick had considered easy to play. He had vulnerable weaknesses in his family and if anyone had a moral fiber in Big’s crew it was probably the florist. 

_What was that?_

Nick’s eyes darted away from Judy to across the park, where he saw a flash of dull, wet red fur. It had only been a second, but it sent him on edge. Immediately he returned to the passenger’s side door and pulled it open. Wolford was just hanging up the phone when he heard the door open. “See you tomorrow, sweetie, got to work.”

Nick nodded off into the distance where he had seen the red color and took his tranq gun out of its holster, Wolford doing the same. Taking a deep breath, they walked into the dark trails of the park. It didn’t matter how he felt about the guy, he trusted nonetheless that Wolford would have his back.

~~

Judy heard movement behind her and worry shot through her. They were only supposed to get out of the car if something was wrong.

“I managed to keep my wife and kids out of Big’s business. The less they know the better.” Otterton’s attention broke for a moment, His breathing was sharp and his eyes were wide his ears kept panning around trying to catch every little sound. “Listen, Judy, I know everything, and you are in grave danger.”

“Emmitt, I’m a cop, danger is part of my job,” she said, trying to reassure him. But that was the same point in which both Wolford and Nick arrived behind her, trying to check out where they had last seen the red-furred form. Nick was attempting to follow a scent trail that was too wet to really follow, and he had a sinking suspicion that he knew why he had seen red fur..

“Wait, you brought him!” The otters eyes widened as he stepped back upon seeing the mammals approaching. “Oh Judy, you can’t trust-“

Otterton’s last words were drowned out by a sound that Judy knew all too well. The gunshot struck the otter hard, and before she could even react a second shot rippled through the air.

Wolford was the first to react, pushing Nick to the ground during the first shot and taking the second hard in the arm.

Judy dove for the cover of a nearby tree as Nick struggled with an injured Wolford on top of him. She cried out in frustration, “Where are they?!”

Nick’s eyes were locked with the predator who had taken the shot currently stashing their gun. She was indeed a red fox, smaller than he had expected, and female in stature and build. She was wearing dark pupils to help blend into the night and the park but was quick to bolt after she met his eye contact.

Nick got to his feet first, but instead of bolting after her he helped up Judy and looked to Wolford and Emmitt. “Wolford, are you okay?”

“I was just shot, Wilde, of course I’m not okay. Shit, my arm hurts.” 

Judy crouched over Emmitt; he had been struck in the stomach, and shock was setting in. Nick could hear a car starting in the distance.

“Judy, we gotta give chase,” Nick said with a growl.

“No, we have to help Emmitt!” Judy cried out, trying her best to stop the bleeding applying pressure with her paws feeling the blood running between her fingers staining her gray fur. 

Wolford approached her and placed his paws over hers. “Go, I’ll call the paramedics, he will be fine. The shot probably missed anything vital.” 

Judy was about to announce that she wasn’t going to leave her friend. He had a family, he had children that needed their father! But she felt Nick’s paws on her shoulder. 

“Come on, we need to go, Judy!” Nick was pulling her away from Emmitt’s body and Judy didn’t want to leave, she could hear a car starting and Nick’s cursing under his breath. Then there was Wolford’s panicked voice as he called in for an ambulance. 

The world seemed to slow down as she was hoisted away, still scrambling, still trying to stay with one of her friends as she was placed into a car, pulling out of the park’s lot and chasing after the only other car on the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew boy so today we learned that Emmitt was the one who wanted to snitch, and we get our first look at our vixen assassin.
> 
> I am really running with this Wolford is a jerk concept. I admit he's a bit of a fandom sweet heart so I expect to take some flack for that.
> 
> No comment round up this time, Mostly due to being pressed for time.
> 
> Edit:02-24,
> 
> So odd thing about Nick getting out of the car. Originally it was supposed to be wolford saying 'hey i'm gonna call my girlfriend and step outside.' but somehow that got flipped around in editing and the scene got kind of weird for it. I have corrected this error and modified the chapter to better reflect Nick getting out of the car first and also Wolford's phone call.


	4. Shut Up And Drive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are at a quarter of a way through this story. Two chapters to the half way point, and I am already so happy for the reception that this has gotten. 
> 
> Zootopia is a now a year old, oh man this fandom has been so much to write for and work with. I regret nothing over the last year time well spent.
> 
> Oh special thanks to Cimar, and YWFE for their contributions in pre reading and editing this chapter. You both are wonderful.
> 
> Anyway onto the car chase I imagine you have all waited long enough for this update.

Sirens blared through the Downtown District roads. The storm had only gotten worse over the night’s pursuit, and what had once been a dull pattering against a car roof was now a dark torrential downpour with the occasional crackle of lightning and thunder.

The red and blue lights that accompanied the sound made the entire chase more dramatic as the two cars tore through the nearly barren streets. Nick, for his part, handled the wheel a lot better than most would give him credit for. With visibility as low as it was between the rain and heavy storm, he had been struggling to keep up with the pair of red back lights in front of him.

He had already burned the plate into his memory, and they could run it if the mammal got away, but he wasn’t about to let that happen. He didn’t want Ombra getting away with this. He knew it would reflect badly on him if he let this mammal get away, and he owed her for the pot shot they took at him. Wolford had saved him with that sudden push, but Nick was nonetheless more than a little angry with this hit mammal.

Beside him, Judy couldn’t look away from her hands. She was stunned -- Nick had practically thrown her into the car needing to give chase to this shadow of his past -- but it was starting to become clear that maybe he should have left her. Maybe he should have tried going at this alone, because Judy had only been able to just put on her seatbelt and little else in the time that they had been in the car.

Nick snapped his fingers in front of the rabbit’s eyes, trying to break her out of the hypnotic gaze into which she had settled. He knew emotional shock well enough, but he needed a second mammal in the car; he couldn’t do everything at once. Nick knew he would need to keep Judy sane and awake if they were going to catch the mammal. “Judy, I said call for backup.”

Judy’s nose twitched as her eyes followed the black paws pointing forward to the car they were chasing. Sirens were blaring but the only other car on the road didn’t want to stop. It was wet and dark; Judy could hardly see a thing past her own paws. Paws that were soaked red.

It was not Nick’s kind of red, not the soft orange she had come to know as a comforting sight of a friend. No, her paws were soaked with crimson and danger. She could smell death on her, felt like she could taste it in the moment, like she was going to throw up. Yet Nick seemed calm, collected, and completely focused on the road. As they took a heavy turn she felt the wheels under them scratch at the pavement and hydroplane as they skidded past a patch of water. How fast were they even going? How far had they gotten away from the park?

The park, gods, she was going to vomit. Nick snapped at her face again, his paws waking her. “Remember regulations, Judy: if you vomit in the car, you clean it.”

“How?!” Judy’s voice was a loud screech as she regarded Nick. Panic ebbing to anger. Her wide violet eyes narrowed as she glared at Nick, wanting to strangle him for being so put together.

“Probably with a vacuum of some sort,” he said, giving a shrug and an infuriating smile, but never once did he take his eyes off the road.

“No, how are you so calm right now? You were almost shot, Nick!” Judy just wanted to scream at her friend, and in fact she seemed to be doing just that as she was sure she wasn’t in control over her own voice.

“I’m wearing my uniform, Judy. I have a protective layer under my dress shirt. I would have been fine. Now, please call for backup.”

Judy went to grab the police radio, the device slipping from her paws for a moment, staining the controls with the blood of one of her friends; each breath she took was pulling in more of the scent, making her want to retch. _Is Emmitt going to be okay? What about Wolford?_

“Don’t think about it, Carrots. Focus on the here and now and do your job. Like I am with the road.” Nick took his foot off the gas for a second so that he could hit another hard turn, as Judy felt her body slide with the movement of the car. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to think about anymore -- or in this moment if she even could think.

Nick, for his part, had to keep his focus on the road; slippery as it was, it was almost impossible to do anything more than keep pace with the mammal they were pursuing. “Where are we, Carrots?”

Judy blinked, still trying not to think too much about her friend who had been shot or the other officer they had left with him, but when Nick gave her a task it was her turn to contribute using the ZPD’s GPS. Trying to measure out the various roads became a lot easier when they had the live feed. Judy had still wasn’t the best with the city planning as she had come from a place where the largest intersection had four stop signs and almost no traffic; it was very different from the cluster of the city. “We’re on Pack Street, heading up.”

Nick wanted to groan; they were going to try to make a break for the Pine Bridge, which passed over the Rainforest District and back towards Tundra Town. He had lived there almost his entire life and knew most of the roads better than some of the taxi drivers, but apparently whoever they were chasing had just as much information because it seemed like they were going to throw just about every weather obstacle they could at Nick and Judy, which was why he needed her awake and aware. That, and he didn’t want her sinking into emotional shock.

Judy pressed the radio and called in the ask for assistance. However, as they settled in and waited for backup, Judy’s anger at the chase and the situation snapped, and she turned to glare at her partner. 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were married?!” The question escaped Judy before she even realized that she had said it. Nick’s green eyes snapped at her, for a moment confusion briefly written across his face as he considered her.

“Carrots, this is not the time,” Nick said, refocusing his attention to the road. The speedometer told him that he was currently going 120, and in a poor residential slum, no less. The scenery was little more than a blur, and if it wasn’t for the fact that it was the pitch of night, he would have been terrified for civilian safety. Part of him wanted to force the mammal onto a highway where they would have less problems engaging them and taking them down instead of having to worry about nearly invisible rodent lanes or the chance of someone walking outside in the middle of the night.

“This is the only time, Nick! What would have happened if you had been shot today -- what would I have told your wife?” Judy’s stomach had settled as anger set in. She had almost seen her partner murdered today along with Emmitt, and she still had no idea what she would say to the other mammal.

“Fluff, let it go. I am trying to drive here.” He could see more color return to Judy’s fur as she became more annoyed with him. Conversation helped, anger helped, and while he hated to admit there were things he wanted to get off his chest. But now? During a high speed chase?

The cars sped down the winding roads of the city. Zootopia’s infrastructure was a mess, Nick had never really noticed it before. He was sure that at one time city planning had made sense, but space in districts limited the roads’ paths, quickly becoming a confusing mess of highways and traffic jams. All of which their attacker was expertly avoiding.

Still, as the cars soared through the night, they were joined and echoed by two other patrol cars. Nick had never felt so much relief to see so many other police officers responding to their call for backup. With the cars at their sides they could work out a solution to the car chase, maybe force her off the road. The cars were built a little different, and Nick recognized the markings as Tundra Town’s precinct five. Their radio crackled over for a moment: “Car 14, this is car 45 and 64 responding to your *.”

“This is car 14, it’s good to have some support. We’re going to try to get a box going to slow them down -- acknowledge?” Judy leaned back; now that they had support this was all going to be over in a moment. They would just force the mammal to slow down and pull over, getting them off the road and into jail.

“Acknowledged, car 14.” 

Judy let out a sigh of relief as the two cars were on their side. It was warming to find a few allies, but considering the tightness with which Nick was still holding the wheel they were not out of danger yet; they still had a lot of ground to cover and they were going at dangerously high speeds considering the actual visuals of the road.

That was about to change, as Nick had to pull back, hitting the brakes to give some extra room between their car and the chase as a bright light clipped their car from overhead. The thick patter of rain was drowned out with another sound. 

“You're kidding.” Nick’s tone of voice made him sound like a kit as his eyes followed the light back to its original source, a sense of awe and wonder as they watched the ZPD’s helicopter set its sights on the car they were pursuing. “Who’s flying that thing? And how do I get a license?”

“Focus, Nick,” Judy said, pushing her partner to get back onto the road, the fox nodding and focusing back on the high-speed pursuit. The eyes in the sky helped, but only in Downtown, where there were smaller buildings. The moment they hit the Rainforest District they would lose the support of the chopper due to the foliage coverage, and the thing wouldn’t be able to fly in Tundra Town, where the snow generators created too many wind currents for the helicopter to fly safely.

With the car being tracked and with the support of the other drivers, Nick thought they had this. It didn’t feel like there was anything that their mystery mammal would be able to do against them. 

Well, up until a window of the car they chased opened and a paw pushed outside of the car. 

Nick pushed Judy’s head down as the mammal opened fire. Taking cover as the car got pelted was not exactly something he ever thought he would have to do. He watched as the glass cracked along the windshield, and one of the pursuing cars swerved slightly, its headlight going dark before Nick heard the distinctive sound of one of its wheels blowing out.

“Shots fired!” the radio crackled in. “Car 45, we’ve been hit, I have to break off pursuit.” 

Nick cursed under his breath, getting back to his wheel and lifting himself up. The cracks along the glass of the windshield did not help with Nick’s ability to see their perp, but it did confirm that they were hunting the right car.

Hitting the pedal to the metal, Nick slammed the front of his car against the back of Ombra’s. Anger flooded into Nick’s vision, making the world go red as he focused on the car he was trying to take down. Nick was sure that if he could just hold the two cars together for a moment he could force them into a pit maneuver or cause something to break so that they would have to slow down. 

“Nick!” Judy looked between her partner and their pursuit, catching a glimpse of the driver when their headlights illuminated the car. For a moment she saw into Ombra’s car and her rear-view mirror. It was only a foretaste of the mammal’s face as she winced from pain, shutting her eyes, but Judy could quickly make out the outline of a small red fox and young, bright red fur as she shielded her green eyes from the light.

That one look would be all that Judy got that night. She blinked, trying to keep the image of the vixen in her mind. “Nick, it’s a vixen!”

“We can tell Wolford that he was right later; right now we just need to bring them down.” Nick briefly returned his focus to Judy, taking his eyes off the road as he shifted towards her so he could look at her. Judy on the other hand had her eyes towards the road as she felt the rising hill before she really saw what it meant.

“Nick! Road!” Judy cried right before she felt another hard impact, the car turning up on its side. In his clouded moment of judgment he hadn’t realized just how close he had gotten to the meridian line of the road and when the yellow line became a divider for the bridge onto which they were going to enter. Their car climbed upwards, and they were on their way over one of Zootopia’s many water features. Nick managed to turn the car quickly enough that they didn’t flip completely over, pulling them back onto the road proper.

“Where are we, Carrots?” Nick was quick to ask, having lost the map he usually kept in his head and unable to check the GPS in the moment of battle. 

“Pine Bridge,” Judy’s answer came a moment after she had regained her own breath from the last attack.

Nick balked only because the bridge was one of the narrower ones. With them directly behind their attacker, the remaining supporting car was forced to fall in line behind them. Being forced between the two gave him very little options when it came to attacking. However, Ombra now had the opportunity of a lifetime.

Nick tried to swerve or slam on the brakes – anything, really, to avoid the next thing, which was the direct collision of his car against Ombra’s full stop. The sudden turn was probably the worst thing he could have done, as it lessened the force of the first crash, but it seemed the officer behind them wasn’t as fast on the uptake.

The second crash was the real problem, and when car 63 slammed into them their car was thrown into a tail spin, the rain water eating up the last of the traction as the car flipped upwards.

“Nick!” 

Judy’s scream was rounded out by a sound of metal grating against stone, pushing and then a feeling of weightlessness as the car was tossed, and then didn’t touch ground.

“Judy!” 

Nick had lost control of the car; there was nothing more he could do to hold onto it, the moment they were in the air they were dead. But what really came as a shock was what happened next, when the car didn’t touch cement again. Horror, followed by stomach turning revulsion and fear, as the car was swept from the side of the bridge and fell down. 

The drop from the bridge caused a blackout in Nick’s mind; he didn’t wake up until he felt the crash, but despite feeling a hard slap as he was yanked back to reality when the sinking didn’t stop. City planning had built countless bridges over many water features. Nick had never been so grateful for and so petrified of the water at the same time.

As the car went turtle flipping upside down from the crash, the fox pulled at his seat-belt, breaking it as the compartment filled with water. The front window was completely smashed, glass and lake water spilling in. 

Beside him was a very unconscious bunny. 

Nick felt something sharp stab into his arms as he moved around the sinking car, breathing heavily as flowed from a cut from his eye. He felt like shit. He was certain he was going to die. This was how Nick and Judy were going to die, and he never even had the chance to tell her anything truly important. 

The fox pulled at Judy’s seat-belt, feeling it give, but not enough. Even his claws weren’t enough to cut her free. The compartment was already up to his knees with water.

“Forgive me,” he mumbled. Without a knife, he only had one option, and it wasn’t pretty. He grabbed her and held her steady, taking the sharpest thing he had on him to cut the seat-belt. He felt his mouth fill with blood as his fangs ripped through fabric of both the seat-belt and Judy’s uniform, having bit a little too deep and carelessly. The endeavor cost him a tooth, but a moment later she was free. 

Gathering the bunny in his arms, he took a deep breath from the last remaining pockets of air and pushed down, his eyes filling with murky dark water. Turning and pulling the rabbit with him, he pushed himself through the broken windshield, his tail catching and cutting along the broken glass and forcing some of the air out of his lungs as he yelped, sinking that much deeper into the waters.

Air bubbles were coming out of the car, the only hopeful sight on land, but on the surface it seemed like all was lost for five, maybe ten minutes before Nick emerged, hauling the bunny up from the murky waters. Above them on the bridge he could see red and blue lights flashing, as well as a few flashlights searching for them. Pulling Judy towards the shore line, he could see the copter that had stayed overhead to observe the scene. He could only assume that Ombra reached the other side of the bridge and was probably long gone by that point.

As they reached the surface, Nick pulled his paw towards Judy’s face to check her breathing, and after a few seconds saw a cloud of air leaving her lips. Falling backwards and going limp, he simply floated, holding Judy, feeling like he could sleep forever.

~~

Nick sat in an ambulance looking over the life choices that had led him to this point. Beside him was Judy, the two of them wrapped in towels, looking up at the first light of the morning after they had been fished out of the water. Nick was cold... colder and wetter than he had ever been. His perfect smile would never be the same, and he had cuts and bruises in places he didn’t think he could bruise. He sat in the ambulance with his dress shirt open revealing nothing but cream and red fur. He had lied to Judy and she had kicked him for that. "I only told you what you needed to hear."

Judy had a fractured wrist and a sizable bump on her head from the impact of the car. The doctors wanted her to spend the day under supervision to make sure it wasn’t a concussion. Nick had volunteered. They had escaped with their lives, but only just.

Bogo had been the one driving the copter, and when he stood over the two officers he seemed happy to have them both in one piece but was, at the same time, quite furious. “You chased a suspect in zero visibility conditions through residential neighborhoods.” 

The chief seemed almost dumbfounded at just how many regulations with which he could hit the two officers. If he wanted to he could have had them both fired, and for once he would be in the right; this had been almost as reckless as their actions with the train during the night howler case. Looking at the state of them he didn’t think they would ever learn anything about restraint.

“Chief, I’m sorry,” Judy’s voice cracked as she apologized, followed by a soft coughing fit. She had swallowed a lot of water during their evacuation of the car; her throat was raw from the preceding purge of lake water from her lungs. 

“Can it, Hopps. I have enough problems for the night without apologies. You can make those later.” Bogo folded his arms and then softened considerably as he tried to come up with a way to talk to the pair about the other pressing issues.

“Otterton?” Nick’s eyes met Bogo’s expression, and the grimness of it told him everything. They had lost the one mammal who could have possibly known everything. 

“I’m sorry,” Bogo nodded, confirming Nick’s suspicions and sending Judy into a crying fit over the loss of her friend. Nick knew that he should have been saddened, angered even, over the loss of a friend, but if anything he was numb. They just lost the best lead they would ever get in this case. “I’ve sent a squad car to their home. We’re putting them into the witness protection program.”

Judy couldn’t bear to stand that, even though she knew why it had to be that way. But it meant she would never have tea with Mrs. Otterton or her children, never see Emmitt or have any connection to her old friend ever again. She tried to dry her eyes and focus but instead continued to sob as she felt Nick’s arm on her shoulder. It was a comfort that helped her to feel a little better.

There was a long moment of silence that followed his announcements. For his part Bogo was not the best at comforting other mammals, and watching one of his best officers break down into tears was painful to him. He took a deep breath as his broad shoulders sagged and he shook his head. “I want you both in my office for a briefing in tomorrow morning, take the day off and rest.”

With the promise of a single day to themselves Bogo took his leave. The two of them were left alone to try and figure out what they were going to do next. Judy focused on getting her breathing and emotions under control, trying to focus on the tasks ahead rather then what had transpired during that awful night.

Minutes passed, and when she finally dried her tears and cried her last with Nick’s reassuring paw brushing her back, she looked up to him in sorrow.

“You wouldn’t have had to say anything to Samantha,” Nick said softly, looking up at the morning sky. It was still raining, dull and gray, and he shivered after speaking, knowing that Judy was looking to him to be some sort of pillar of strength when all he wanted was to curl up and not talk about this ever again.

Judy’s violet eyes turned towards Nick. Her ears perked with a slight twinge of pain and another shiver; neither of them could really get warm, even with the coffee they had been handed and the extra towels. “What?”

“She ran away. I haven’t seen or heard from her in sixteen years. I filed a missing mammal report, but…” Nick’s voice trailed off, unsure of what more he could say. Samantha was a fox, and the odds of the police even caring enough to find a fox had in those days been so rare, not to mention the fact that she hadn’t want to be found. Though now he was sure that he had to find her. He had seen the red fox in the park. A vixen, though he hadn’t been close enough to get a good look at her; she was smaller then he remembered, but he didn’t want to pass up a chance.

Judy blinked for a moment, unsure of how to take the new information. It did answer why her partner had never mentioned the fact that he was married before. Nick had no idea where his wife even was or if she was alive or dead. “I’m so sorry, Nick.”

“No, I deserved it, I drove her away. I drive away a lot of mammals; I’m not good at the whole emotional thing. I’m a coward, never let them see that they get to you kind of means you have to hold everyone at bay,” Nick gave a long sigh as he looked up to the sky and closed his eyes. There was more he knew he wanted to say, but couldn’t find the words.

Judy reached out to put her paw over Nick’s. He stiffened but didn’t pull away. Nick felt his heart racing for a moment as the bunny leaned on his shoulder. Her head hurt, and she wanted little more than to sleep, wanting the day to be over with even though it had technically just started. “Nick?”

“Yes, Fluff?” Nick’s answer was whispered. He moved his head over hers, a gesture that would have been romantic if not that his mouth was packed full of gauze and he was drooling blood from having ripped out a tooth.

“Just shut up, dumb fox,” Judy sighed contently, reclining against his shoulder. Her ears dropped slightly as she closed her eyes and leaned on him. He was damp but also warm, and she felt herself shiver at the implications of everything that had happened.

Nick closed his eyes and put an arm around Judy, pulling her a little closer. His tail also moved to wrap around her, but was now several inches shorter then it had been moments before the accident such was the cost of their freedom the black tip of the tail was completely removed in his escape leaving only patches of frayed orange where the ambulance had shaved and patched. It would take Nick a while, but he would get used to it, and at least it hadn’t ripped completely off. 

For now, he took comfort in the bunny he was holding, the one person in the entire world with whom he felt he had a chance being completely honest. At the same time, fearful of everything that would happen the moment he started to open up to her. 

“Yes, Judy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We end on a soft note, a chance to breath and for our hereos to sleep. It has been exactly 24 hours at this point since the story began.
> 
> Otterton is dead the first causality of war. 
> 
> Our Assassin got away.
> 
> And Nick's week can only continue to get worse from here people.


	5. Ancient History

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to YWFE who had to edit like six versions of this chapter, and to Cimar Wilde Hopps for helping me make sure that I didn't go too far off the deep end.
> 
> I am very worried about this chapter, and I hope it goes well but honestly this one is either going to make or break this story for a lot of readers. So I look forward to seeing comments get tossed about with this one. 
> 
> People may also notice that this story is no longer done in 12 parts. This plot has evolved as i have been writing it, and honestly I don't think I can finish this story as early as 7 parts from now. It does still have a finite end, but it may take a while getting down that road.

Twenty Two Years Ago

A few nights prior , Johnathan Wilde had come home later then usual. He didn’t think he had been seen, but Nick had been up at the top of the stairs. He had watched as the fox snuck in through the door and ran to the bathroom to wash himself, had seen his father rip off his suit jacket and heard a rare instance where Honest John had cursed as he pulled off a shirt stained crimson. He tossed the expensive clothing into the garbage and washed his paws, breathing heavily as panic seemed to run through him.

Nick had listened from his perch as Johnathan Wilde got into a fight with his wife, both dancing around the issues, trying not to raise their voices to let their precious kit sleep. He couldn’t make out the words of the argument from the stairs, but even if he could have, he wouldn’t have understood them.

At one point, he was sure he had heard his mother call his father, a man whom he loved and respected, a monster. The response would be something he would never be able to forget; it was the single time his father had been speechless in his life, the silver tongue of the fox captured and slain. When fear coursed through the fox, the only response had been to raise a fist. He had seen the shadow of it flicker along the wall, but there had never been the sound of contact; his father lowered the hand he had raised and walked out of the bathroom, ashamed, naked, and still bleeding.

Nick never talked to his mother about that night, but he should have.  
~~  
Johnathan Wilde stood a few feet ahead of his son. Both foxes were dressed in their tailored best. Nick was curious about what was going on. He had been introduced to Mr. Big only a few weeks before, and now they were both being summoned for a second audience with the crime lord. The drive from the broken streets of Happytown to the elegant manor in Tundra Town was something he admired every time, and the fact that they were picked up in a limo made everything seem that much more surreal.

These trips, though rare, always sparked a sense of wonder in Nick. Part of him knew that the people his father was dealing with were bad. He could peek behind the curtains every now and then; since his father worked with Big he had noticed little things, like the way he would sneak home after a long day out and immediately hide in the shower.

Or the odd stains Nick would find here and there while doing laundry. The fact that a poor family of foxes could suddenly afford so much more then they had in years prior. The odd silence his mom had towards the subject. For the most part Nick was too young to really understand what it all meant, but he had wanted to learn.

Today his father had invited him to come along to witness the work that he did for Big. Nick had eagerly agreed, considering that he already spent some time with the Bigs and he liked Grandmama; she was helpful, and the sweet shrew made sure that he was fed. In fact, she had been one of the first mammals with whom Nick had confided, the old lady getting past all the guards that he wanted to have.

So, when they got out of the car and walked the short albeit freezing distance between the limo and the manor and walked inside the Bigs’ waiting room, the scene caused a rush of confusion and panic for the small fox. The arrangement was confusing, with two larger polar bears standing on either side of the desk where Grandmama, the matriarch of the Big family, worked. Nick had always assumed that his father worked for Mr. Big from their first meeting, but the other shrew was nowhere to be found.

What was found, and what drew his attention the fastest, was a presence he hadn’t seen in four years. One he hadn’t wanted to see again. A woodchuck he knew all too well, though he was bound in a chair a muzzle sitting tightly on the mammal’s face. 

Nick looked to his father, but Johnathan simply returned a shrug, as if this was part of the reason they were there. Nick swallowed as the door was shut behind them, wanting nothing to do with this room. His emerald eyes looked around as quickly as possible, trying to divine some way out of the situation.

“Mrs. Big, it’s a pleasure to see you,” Johnathan said, leaning in close so that the shrew could kiss both his cheeks. Johnathan smiled and stepped back from the desk. The shrew moved her eyes from Johnathan to the much smaller fox, who failed to greet her out of being nervous. 

Johnathan gave Nick a small nudge towards their host. “Nicholas, remember your manners.”

Snapped out of his coma, he approached Mrs. Big as he had in the past, having to jump up on a chair to reach her and kiss her ring. He gave the shrew a bow as he had in the past, trying in vain to put the suffering woodchuck out of his mind. “Hello, Mrs. Big.”

“Nicky, my child, is this the mammal you told me about?” the crime boss asked. “Terry, the one that hurt you?” 

Nick looked over to the woodchuck; there was no denying that he knew that face: Terry Woodson of scout troop 914. The mammal that only four years ago, had taken his dream from him. Nick forced down the rough feeling that he was about to throw up; he did not like any of this. 

Terry was sobbing and trying to struggle in his chair, but the muzzle around his face prevented him from speaking or crying out for help anymore than the few muffled screams and whimpers that shook Nick to his core.

 

“I have a job offer for you, Nicky, one that would bring you into my family, and I want you to know that I look out for my family fiercely. We are loyal to each other, my child.” 

Nick’s breath stopped; he felt like a wall of ice was wrapping around and strangling him. He didn’t know where this was going but he wanted no part in this. He turned to leave, but was stopped when Johnathan stepped in front of him.

“This mammal hurt you, and that’s why he’s here,” the shrew waved a hand, and the polar bears moved in a rehearsed motion, pulling apart a rug and opening a pool of water.Tthe sudden burst of cold air made Nick shiver; he could see the thin layer of ice that formed where the water hadn’t been disturbed. “I do not let those who hurt my family walk away.”

Nick’s eyes met the eyes of the woodchuck, and he could see only fear in the boy’s face. Nick, on the other hand, was struggling to breathe. His eyes went from the panicked woodchuck to the ice water, and he felt his stomach do a backflip. His heart was beating so fast that it felt like it was going to explode.

Nick stepped forward, finding his legs, which were still shaking. He remained horrified but at the same time intrigued. He was becoming family? Joining something bigger? But the way Grandmama was speaking was making his legs feel weak. He was already sure he was going to hate this; he kept glancing to his father, mostly wanting to leave.

But instead, his father spoke next.

“Can you be brave, Nicholas? I want you to think about this long and hard. What the Bigs are asking for you to do, it’s hard. Remember, we are tailors. We cut threads, and we do so with confidence. In this line of work you can never let anyone see that they can get to you.” 

Johnathan spoke softly, clearly expecting his son to walk away, but if anything, the words of his father chilled him. Nick stood frozen. He had already come to terms with the fact that no one would ever trust him; he had tried that path, but the Big family? They were willing to bring him in and welcome him with open arms. That said, there was a cold realization as to what that would come with, the price he would have to pay.

“Nick, my dear, ice him.” 

Nick’s eyes widened with shock at hearing the words. He turned his head towards the old shrew, who gave him a kind look, edging him on further even though this was not what the boy wanted. Nick looked around, trying to find some kind of help, but each face in the room was watching him with anticipation. He turned to his own father, who simply crossed his arms and watched, standing near the door.

The young fox slowly took a step forward, the woodchuck in the chair watching him with an intense horror that caused Nick to break. This was beyond him. Thievery, anything else really, he could handle, but they were asking him to murder someone. Nick held his breath, trying to find some way to say no to this, but he couldn’t see a way out of the room. His head started to spin, and before he knew it Nick could feel trails of hot tears burning against his eyes. He didn’t know what he wanted anymore. If this was the price he had to pay to actually join a group, he would rather be alone for the rest of his life. 

A paw settled on the chair, leaning on Terry for a moment as it was the only thing he could find that was able to support him, he heard the soft unstable creaking of wood as he closed his eyes.

“I can’t!” Nick shouted. He opened his eyes, but with them still being watery he could hardly see.. A flash of rage caused him to turn towards his father, a deep-set glare in his eyes as he looked at the fox. “This is sick! You can’t expect me to.” As Nick’s hand left the chair he heard sliding and bending wood. 

“No!” Nick tried to grab onto the chair, but it was too heavy, feeling gravity already do its part. He tried desperately to stop the top-heavy woodchuck, hearing the screaming sounds of a muzzled mammal as Nick grabbed the woodchuck’s uniform, the clothing being the only thing into which he could sink his claws. “Dad, help!”

Nick felt the fabric rip against his claws, his eyes widening; no one was helping him, and try as he might he couldn’t stop the chair from moving. The claws on his feet scraped at the wood, clawing and trying their best to get a better grip to stop Terry from going into the deep. Nick felt a hand on his shoulder pulling him away from the woodchuck, and he watched in horror as he was wrenched away by his father. The young boy disappeared into the icy water.

Nick scrambled, clawing at anything near him, putting his hand into the water and retracting it as the ice-cold liquid burned his skin. “No, Nn, I didn’t mean to!” he cried. He looked around in panic as the trap door was covered. He clawed at the wood; he felt sick, , and a moment later he was throwing up against the wood paneling, heaving until every muscle told him that his dinner was gone.

Johnathan pulled his son into a deep hug, comforting his child. Nick pressed his head against his father’s chest and cried harder than he had since the day that he had been muzzled. “I didn’t want… I tried to save him!”

“I know, Nicky.” His father’s voice sounded… wrong. It was an emotion he couldn’t really pick out, but it sounded much more like disappointment than anything else. “But you can’t turn back now, son.”

Nick curled into a ball as he held his father close and cried. He had tried his best to stop it, but in that moment, he had lost everything. He felt his father’s paw brushing his back as he was hugged tightly, but when he looked at his father thinking that he would find some emotion across his face some sense of loss or sorrow.

Johnathan’s face was unreadable, his green eyes set forward, his mouth closed and expressionless. He moved slowly, picking his son up and sheltering him but also forcing the small kit to stand up on his own paws. He made sure that while he was supporting Nick he didn't drag his son out of the room, only relenting when Nick could walk out on his own.

It was the last time father and son spoke of that day.

~~   
Nick hadn’t spoken or really left his room for almost a full day after the incident. He hadn’t eaten, he had only slept when his body could no longer cry or throw up. So he was wide awake when he heard the soft rapping at the door. Nick didn’t say anything, but the door opened anyway, letting a stream of light into the room, hurting his nocturnal eyes and forcing an animalistic growl. Nick placed a paw over his forehead as his mother walked into the room.

Vivian Wilde was a tall, slender red fox. Her face was marked with worry; Nick knew her as happy and loving, but currently her yellow eyes were filled with concern. She walked softly, never making a sound as she placed a tray with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a full glass of ginger ale onto her kit’s nightstand.

She brushed his forehead with the back of her paw testing him for a moment to make sure that he wasn’t too sick. She let out a long sigh.   
“Sweet child ,” Vivian whispered, leaning in and kissing Nick’s forehead, brushing him as the young boy tried to sob or cry or anything, really, but was too drained, too tired, and too dry. 

“Mom,” Nick’s voice cracked, threatening to break at just the act of speaking. He trembled as she brushed his fur softly.

“It’s okay,” she said soothingly, even though it really wasn’t; they both knew that. Instead, here was a mother who couldn’t protect her kit from something so criminal and a kit who was being destroyed by a world in which he had little choice. 

“Are you mad at me?” Nick asked, looking up as if she had all the details, which of course she didn’t. He still couldn’t speak about what had happened that night, and it wasn’t like Johnathan was going to say anything. Still, Vivian pulled her kit closer. Nick curled closer to her as she brushed him for a long bout of silence, his mother trying to compose some sort of answer to her kit, some form of forgiveness for what he had done.

She had been angry when she had first found out about his hustling and his dropping out of school, but this, whatever happened now was so far beyond what her kit should have gone through. No, she couldn’t punish Nick for whatever life he was starting upon. 

“Oh, my sweet, gentle child, I want so much better for you,” Vivian cried as she held the weeping kit in her arms. “Whatever happened, no, I’m not angry at you.”

~~

The gun range rang out in the fox’s ears. He was out in the burrows. The gun laws here were a little more loose considering there was more land. Most farmers had a rifle to deal with birds that would attack crops. 

It had been six months since the incident. Nick had stayed home sick for days after the fact. As the boy now stood he was smaller then he had been when he had been summoned to the manor; he had stopped eating for a while. When he had finally been too hungry to deny himself food he had overeaten and ended up vomiting half his meals. 

His paws were steady, but he himself was lost. His green eyes had lost their shine, and he hadn’t found much he could actually laugh about anymore. 

Beside the young fox was his mentor and father. Johnathan had the same protective headgear and goggles that Nick did, as he was currently trying to get used to the feeling and weight of the gun. His father demonstrated the proper stance for him while Nick sat back and watched. When John put the gun down, he pressed a button that brought his target closer so he could pull it down and look at the marks as well as set up a new one. Checking over his score, he had hit most of them close to the enemy’s chest. He muttered something that Nick couldn’t hear with his safety muffs on.

These trips had been happening at least once a month. At first it had been a good distraction from the rest of his life, until he had realized why they were out there. At first, he thought that it had just been some sort of father and son bonding time, but no, Nick was being trained. He had accepted that at that point; it was only a matter of time before the Bigs called on him, and he knew if he was going to survive the next encounter he needed to be ready. 

Though… ready for what? It was all so different now. 

“Are we lying to Mom?” Nick asked as he looked at his father. 

Johnathan sighed and pulled off his headset, turning to Nick. Johnathan bent down so that he could be on he kit’s level as he spoke, his eyes warm. “ “No, we aren’t lying to her about this, we just aren’t telling her. Your mother knows I do errands for Big, and she knows that you are going to help me. She just doesn’t know…”

“That we kill mammals?” Nick finished his father’s sentence when it appeared his father wasn’t going to say it. Nick, on the other hand, had to say it. He still couldn’t get the screams out of his head; he hadn’t slept a full night in weeks. He was angry, frustrated and didn’t feel like he had done anything right. He couldn’t; he had just been violently ripped into a world to which he didn’t belong. He wanted out, but there was nothing he could do.

Johnathan let out a long sigh as he looked at his son, clearly not relishing the conversation that was going to take place here. For one, while it wasn’t all that populated, they were still in public and he had to double check that no one was listening to him or his son when he spoke about their work. Once he could confirm that he gave a nod. “Nick, remember what I told you about working a business?”

“That it’s about offering a service that no one else can do,” Nick said, shrugging. He understood now that his father had a monopoly over this trade. He had already made his choice, and as he looked at the gun on the table he walked forward, taking the stance his father had demonstrated.

“That’s right, we are tailors, we cut out the loose threads that the Bigs don’t want clinging to them,” Johnathan said, watching as Nick held the gun in sturdy paws. The fox’s son rolled his eyes; when Johnathan put his work in terms like that it almost made what they were doing sound normal. Internally he knew that it was wrong and that he should be torn up about it, because there was some part of him that hated what he was doing, but there was another voice at the back of his head that had no problem with this so long as he got whatever it was he wanted. 

The Bigs offered him respect and a place at their family table; he was never going to get that anywhere else. No other mammal would trust a fox, and at least here he was part of something. It may not have been the dream some idiot kid had when he was eight or nine, but dreams were often dumb, and if he could service his family this way then he had no problem with it. Holding the gun, it felt laughably light for something could end the life of a rhino if close enough. He braced himself, squaring his shoulders and looking to his father.

His father tapped his head, and Nick pointed the gun upwards. Even with the protective headwear the gun was surprisingly loud, but comfortable in his paws. The recoil didn’t comically push him back, and he found that he had a good eye for the target, taking him only a few shots before he hit the center of the mammal’s head. The goal was simple: make sure he could make the shot in only a single round every time. When it was just a paper target, it was easy.

Nick breathed rhythmically and lined up the shot. He could fill in the blanks and he knew that he wasn’t going to stay on these paper targets forever. He hated that fact he wanted out of this situation and wanted to run and never look back.

That said, however, he had no idea where he would go if he did run. The Bigs owned such a huge part of the city from what he knew about them. If he ran he would be found and than it would be him in the ice next time. His breath hitched for a moment as he felt a shiver creep up his spine and his grip on the gun tightened, aiming at the target as he fired. 

~~   
_“Then let us talk about your place in our family.”_ Mr. Big’s words from his meeting with him were still rattling about in Nick’s head as he walked the streets of Zootopia. He had been driven back from Tundra Town, but he had no desire to go home, so he had gotten out of the car and was now walking the last few blocks up to his home. 

The meeting had been so polite, but of course after everything that had happened Nick had been dragged into a situation he hated. Once again, he was being forced to do something that was unthinkable. Terry had been his fault, but he had at least tried to prevent it. This time, he was given a choice and sent on his way. Despite the temperature being pleasantly warm he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was cold. 

_“Your father has betrayed me, Nicky, and I can no longer have him in my court. I have two choices, my boy, and neither are great. I can’t trust your father after what he did, and I can’t trust your mother not to be in on it. But if you do this favor for me, my child, I will spare her my family’s wrath.”_

As he walked up to the door of his home he felt sick again. The first time had been an accident. This, however, was a deliberate choice he had to make. They had given him the same gun he had used at the range, which was now tucked into his back, and given him a job.

Walking into the house, his ears twitched, trying to make out the sounds of who was awake. He didn’t have to strain them for long, though, as when he closed the door his father called out to him.

“Your mother is sleeping, Nicky,” whispered his father. Nick nodded, not wanting to wake her. His hand was behind him, and both foxes knew what he was carrying. 

“If you hand yourself back to Big and give back what you stole, then I won’t have to do this,” Nick spoke calmly as emerald eyes met those of his father. Johnathan, however, seemed perfectly calm Nick couldn’t understand why his father would steal from Big. His father was a professional; everything he had witnessed and believed supported that Johnathan, while a killer, was an honest man.

The only response Johnathan gave back to his confused kit was silence. 

“Why?” As Nick asked, his grip on the gun at his back tightened. He swallowed, his throat feeling like he was about to vomit concrete for how much this was going to hurt. Why did he have to do this? Why would he steal from Big, and why of all mammals did Nick have to be the one to put down his father for his actions?

“Call it an insurance policy, Nicky. One day you are going to understand that there are choices you simply cannot prevent yourself from making. I did what I had so that one day, you and Vivi could move on from this.” Johnathan sat back into his chair. He looked at his son, his eyes unreadable. A small grin spread across his face as he sniffed the air. “It’s silenced, right?”

Nick nodded, holding up the gun to show his father. The pistol had the attached silencer, which, while it wouldn’t help take away every part of the sound, would muffle it enough that the neighbors wouldn’t know and his mother could stay in bed.

“In all my years of doing that line of work, Nicky, I had a few like me, ones that knew I’d be coming and decided to accept that. They were my favorites, in all honesty. The ones that run or fight back, they made your mother worry when I’d come home.” Johnathan had a melancholy look to his eyes, downcast for a long period of silence, driving a wedge further between them.

“So, she does know?” Nick swallowed at the question, trying to keep bile down. It was so much harder to be a rock now than it had been with Terry. The answer was a simple nod. It was a low punch to the gut, but Nick understood; they were foxes. You only get one love when you’re a fox. They are bound to you for the entirety of their life. Nick took a breath, trembling.

 

“I never keep secrets from her, Nick. She understood that what I do, I do for you and her.” 

Anger flashed through Nick’s entire body as he walked up to his father, wanting to scream, but as soon as Nick moved to yell Johnathan’s paw grabbed his face, clamping his muzzle shut, making the scream a muffled nothing. “You won’t understand it. I know that already.” 

John held his son’s jaw shut until Nick’s breathing had returned to normal, which took a few minutes. The hackles on the back of his neck were still raised, and his emerald eyes gave a look that could melt steel and shatter worlds. When Johnathan let go, his paw once again went to his muzzle, motioning for the kit to be quiet.

“Why are you making me do this? I don’t want this job. I don’t want to ruin peoples’ lives and kill,” Nick’s whispers rose in volume, but he managed to keep his voice quiet for his mother sleeping off in another room.

Johnathan remained silent as Nick had his words. He had sold the boy’s future, and there was nothing more he could do about that. Nick sighed; clearly talking wasn’t going to work. He drew out the gun and pointed at his father, but as he did his hand shook, and Nick tried to keep the glare, tried to hold his anger, but fear caused him to falter. He felt sick the moment he started to hold the gun, even though he had been training for months. He knew how to take the thing apart and put it back together in less than a minute, he knew the feel, the recoil, the sound. He knew what it could do.

_What it’s going to do to your own father?_ His hand shook at the thought, and he felt sick again, his eyes becoming wet. “Please don’t make me do this.”

Johnathan sighed and moved closer. He reached out a calm paw that cupped over Nick’s, his thumb holding Nick’s index finger as he tried his best to steady his son’s hand. Emerald met crying emerald, and Johnathan smiled softly. “Last request, Nick.” Don’t wake your mother.” 

The next thing Nick knew, he felt John’s hand squeezing down on his.

~~  
Nick was sixteen. His suit was tailor-made, expensive, and made the young fox seem dashing and well-groomed. Despite probably being the only red fox in the room, no one paid him anymore mind than he desired, blending in with mammals around him. The music was soft coming from an orchestral arrangement, and while the lighting in the ballroom did hurt his eyes, he had to admit that it all had excellent touches of wealth and extravagance.

Nick loved these parties. They were superficial and unimportant. The conversations never got any deeper than name and occupation, though currently Nick could only answer one of those questions. He had come to understand that loneliness came with being a fox.

His mother had never talked to him about the night his father had died; the two had been silent, both knowing what had happened, but neither speaking about it. Nick shut her out at that point, shut everyone out; he needed to at that point. Of course, he still had people he had to rely on now more then ever.

Nick moved a hand to a headpiece radio, placing it in his ear for a moment. “Remind me again who the target is?”

An older female voice called out over the radio. “First off, you aren’t supposed to be using this unless you’re in a bathroom or something, so I hope you’re not out on the floor again.”

Nick shrugged; it wasn’t like the voice could see him, after all. 

“Secondly his name is Whoolter Patsy. He’s a sheep and a prominent figure for the incumbent mayor, and taking him down will launch a small investigation into his fundraising and sink the mayor’s career.”  
Nick rolled his eyes, “I was going to vote for the other guy anyway.”

“You’re sixteen, you can’t vote, Nick.” 

Nick could picture the badger rolling her eyes as she spoke to him over the radio. So far though he liked Lionheart; Every investigation had the guy coming up clean, unlike the incumbent who was a known affiliate to Mr Big’s enemies. Nick was pulling the last leg out so that he could watch the entire tower fall.

As he walked through the party, trying to keep his eyes out for the target. he was incredibly bored by the situation. He was trying to launch an investigation into criminal funding, not create a mass panic, so he wasn’t going to kill the guy during the party -- far too many witnesses for that. He just wanted to scope around get information on his target and maybe make some contacts. It really paid in this business if you knew everyone.

That was when another mammal bumped into him. “Oh, sorry, ma’am,” Nick said, turning in time to come face to face with a slender vixen. “Ah, so, I’m not the only one here.”

The red fox was a female of beauty aside from her awful taste in attire, which was a lounge dress with a green floral pattern that made him question if she was blind. She, on the other hand, was a creature of elegance, her red fur so much more flushed and vibrant, her teeth white and sharp, her eyes an electrifying yellow that he could have gazed into for an eternity. The cherry on this cake of perfection was that she couldn’t have been more than two years older then him. 

“Samantha Vulpes,” she cooed with an outstretched gloved paw that Nick took and gently kissed, bowing as he did so. She was already a good head taller than him, but the real problem was from when he touched her paw; she was frail to touch and a tad cold, He could feel the bones in her paw, and looking at her fur aside from her being puffed up she was either on an extreme diet or sick, though he couldn’t smell any illness on her aside from the powerful perfume.

“Nick Wilde. It’s a pleasure,” Nick said again, enjoying the superficial nature of everything around them. A young vixen at a party, she probably had a story to tell, and he was not going to ask that, because the moment that you ask someone for their story they expected you to tell them yours.

“Oh, I highly doubt that,” Samantha said, pulling her hand away and causing an actual genuine response from him for a change. “Fellow red fox, self-tailored suit, wears well but made cheaply. Green eyes, rare for a fox, and you’re young so I should know you but I don’t, which means you’re not part of the party list. So that means you’re up to something, so why shouldn’t I have security throw you out?”

Nick let out a whistle. “Nice going, Sherlock.” Hesniffed the air. “Fancy perfume but a shitty taste in dress, elegant but rude, you’re a high society brat, part of the Vulpine family of Fox Hollow, and you won’t turn me in because you’re completely disgusted by this entire event. You got dragged along ‘cause your daddy backs the mayor but you don’t care about politics. Whatever trouble I am getting into is much more interesting than whatever the heck daddy would want you to do.”

The two foxes sized each other up, and then they both started chuckling. Samantha spoke, breaking their laughter. “Cute, so how can I be of assistance with your trouble?” 

Nick chuckled, offering his arm to the vixen, which she draped herself across, pulling Nick close. Walking out to the veranda, Nick thought, maybe this party wasn’t going to be so superficial after all, and while that should have put him on edge, currently he was too busy with Samantha. In his ear he briefly heard Honey’s voice before he disconnected his radio; the assignment could wait a few hours. The vixen on his arm was vastly more interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey remember how the last chapter ended and you all thought that you were going to get cute fluff and romance out of this story?
> 
> I lied. 
> 
> This chapter shows the escalation of events for Nick becoming Ombra at the age of 12-13. 
> 
> So lets retrack what we learned so far cause their are some serious revelations here.
> 
> So people were confused a while back when i had hinted that Nick had been behind Johnathan's death. So while I don't think it's a hint anymore.
> 
> Also Johnathan Wilde may have become the worst person I could ever imagine.
> 
> Anyway I look forward to replying to all of the messages. And I promise fluff will happen next week.


	6. Don't you (forget about me)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a year and a bit now since I did anything, so hey how about a chapter update? bet you all thought i was dead. Special thanks to drummer max, and Cimar wildehopps who encouraged me to start writing again and lent their talent to beta reading this.

Nick’s tongue kept flipping over the place where a tooth used to be. His jaw had stopped bleeding by the time he had crawled onto the sofa of his apartment. He had pretty much commanded Judy to take the bed. He laid for a long moment, staring up at the ceiling, unsure of what his next move would be. They had a day off, but that didn’t really mean he could stop working. Not when the new fox, the new shadow had acted in such a vulgar way. A high-speed chase down a public freeway, a firefight with the cops, and a murder of one of Big’s own crew.

If Big was going to off a member of his own crew, Nick knew what he had to do in order to quell some of the unease in his mind. He glanced at his cellphone, and then down the hall, his ears pitching for any sound that could have come from behind the closed door of his bedroom, anything that told him Judy wasn’t asleep. Then he slowly picked up his phone, considering who they were dealing with. A little paranoia was a good thing. It was healthy for keeping everyone alive.

Dialing the phone number was easy, it was practically a reflex with how many times he had called the number. When the deep male voice answered on the other side, Nick let out a soft sigh of relief. “Whatchu want Nick? It’s four a.m. in the goddamn morning, you better have a good reason to call.”

“Ombra is back in service.” Nick’s voice was cold. Admitting it was a difficult thing to do, and the silence across the line was deafening.

“Nicky… we did a shit ton to get you out of that. If you went back!” The anger and force that came across the phone actually had Nick pull the phone away from his ears, taking a moment to put a paw over the phone's speaker and double-check that no one else could listen in.

“Not me.” Nick raised a paw to his chest as he defended the accusation. “It wasn’t me this time, it’s a female red fox.”

“And let me guess, you want my help to get you a name,” Finn said. It wasn’t a question, rather resigned acceptance to the fact that he was prepared to pull up every single contact he had to get a name. Something, anything that would lend a level of closure to this.

“No Finn, I want you out.” Nick’s voice was a quick, hushed whisper, one that almost had a growl. He had done well to keep Finn out of harm's way, but he already knew the other hustler had become a pariah among others. Nick had known far too much when he had turned blue, and because of that, all of his friends from back in the day had targets on their backs.

“Out of what, Nick? I’m already out of the game thanks to you! Ain’t no one dealing with me, and I ain’t running a one-mammal show here, Nick.”

“Out of Zootopia, Finn. I want you out of the city, at least until all of this blows over.” Nick sighed and braced himself for the string of curses that was going to come his way. Finnick had been born here, they had fought and bled together on the streets of Zootopia, so of course he expected Finn to fight him on this. Instead, he just got a soft sigh.

“I ain’t going to no bunnytown, Nick. I ain’t gonna go prey like you did, but… Yeah, a few weeks out of town sounds good right about now.” Nick’s ears pressed to his head as he let out a grateful whimper. It wasn’t what he had expected, but he was glad. In the background of the conversation, he could faintly hear Finnick walking up to his van and unlocking the door as he got inside.

“Thanks buddy, could you pass it on?” Nick didn’t want to call every mammal on his old team. At least one of those bridges had been burned a long time ago.

“No one to pass it on to, Nick. Honey don’t leave her bunker, and well, I lost track of the other.” The two hadn’t used the other’s name in a long time, but even just the mention of “she who must not be named” sent a shiver down Nick’s spine.

“Thanks Finn, have a good night.”

“Yeah yeah, I have a road trip to go-” Nick could hear the sound of a car trying to turn, followed by a roar that was distinctly too loud for what it was supposed to be, and then the dead tone of a phone.

“Finn… Finn?” Nick pressed the end button and dialed again, but he got Finnick’s voice mail. For a moment, Nick felt like he had just been submerged in ice. Every part of his body was hyper aware.

~~~

When Judy awoke, it was still very early morning. The sun wasn’t even out yet, and waking up surrounded in the smell of fox musk was rather calming after the events of yesterday, though it was missing the actual fox. Getting up and dressing herself in one of Nick’s shirts, his tall frame enough for her to basically use it as a bathrobe, she walked out of the bedroom and into the living room. She half-expected to see her fox asleep, his leg casually twitching, tongue lolling out of his open maw, but the moment she opened the door, she got a different scene entirely.

“I just want to know who the reporting officer on the case is,” Nick asked. His green eyes were red, and his fur was ruffled, as if he didn’t sleep. He was currently talking on his cell phone and pacing around the room in only pajama pants, leaving the cream of his upper chest exposed, his lithe, strong frame open to examination. “Benjamin, I’m not saying I am going to tamper with a crime scene, I just want a name! I won’t call or pester them in anyway, I promise.”

Judy blinked, wondering why Nick would be hung up about an investigation on their day off. She glanced around the room, noticing that the TV was turned on. The news was playing a loop of something. A van on fire. She blinked again, taking a moment for all the gears in her brain to work, and then slowly came up with a memory of a certain van, heavily painted and well detailed. She knew its owner, and then, it all clicked. “Oh, sweet cheese and crackers.”

Nick put his phone down for a moment to look at Judy, seeing her in his clothing. He looked at her for just long enough to register the soft beat in his heart, but he couldn’t focus on it. Not when people around him were in so much danger. “Benny, please. He was my best friend. Can’t you give me something? Anything?”

There was a long pause, and then Nick gave a morose “thanks,” hung up, and hurled his phone across the room, watching with some satisfaction as the Android screen shattered against the wall into a dozen smaller pieces. He walked somewhat shakily to the sofa and slammed hard down upon it. Putting his paws over his eyes for a moment, he let out a sharp, instinctual scream before grabbing and tugging on his ears. “I can’t do this!”

Judy’s ears dropped. Nick had managed to handle Otterton’s death like it had been little more than a bad situation, but this, seeing him laid out like he was, destroyed, she honestly didn’t know how to handle it. She came up to him and softly brought her paw to his chest, brushing his fur as he whimpered, but didn’t cry. Judy didn’t really think Nick could cry. She crawled onto the sofa and lay down next to him, resting her head against his belly fur. She wrapped her arms around him in a soft hug and lay there for a long moment. Eventually, Nick’s hands rested on her shoulders, and then finally pulled her into a hug, giving in.

It took the two of them a short while to find sleep again, the fox caving in to the newfound warmth. If he had nothing else, at least he knew that this one was safe. He could keep her safe.

~~~

When they awoke, it was due to a soft rumbling in the bunny’s stomach that made them both slowly gather their wits about them. Judy, for her part, felt like she had overslept, as it was almost ten o’clock, while Nick was running on about five hours of sleep. The sun filtered in through the windows of his apartment, and he tried not to think about the events prior to them sleeping together in the literal and platonic sense of the saying. Nick brushed a hand along her body for a moment. He held her closely for as long as she would let him before finally separating and asking the question on both their minds.

“Where do you want to eat?” He got up from the sofa and walked to his room so he could get dressed. “I’ll pick you up some food on the way back from your apartment.”

“Why would you need to go to my apartment?” The gears in Judy’s head were a little clearer now, but she didn’t really know what to say or do in this situation.

“Mostly because I’m the one with clothing. Unless you want to wear your uniform, but it hasn’t been laundered or hung up to dry yet.” Everything but the bulletproof vest was going to need to go into the wash. “And everything I have is gonna be too big for your cute little bunny butt to use.”

Judy rolled her eyes. “Don’t call me cute.”

“I wasn’t.” Nick stepped out of his room, a soft, smug smile back on his face, hiding everything that had happened a few hours ago. “I was calling your butt cute. Now, what do you want to eat?”

~~~

Nick’s stroll down the street left him looking in every direction he could think of. He didn’t feel safe outside of his apartment, and he kept sniffing the air for anything suspicious. Gunpowder, perfume, anything that would alert him to another attack. Even when he arrived at Judy’s apartment with her key, he had to double-check the door to make sure nothing had been disturbed. Walking into the small box that Judy called a home, he let out a small sigh as he gathered up some clothing.

Now, as he walked down the street back to his apartment, he was sipping a coffee, a bag of clothing in one hand, and draped across his other arm was a takeout bag from Bugga Burger. A spinach salad for Carrots and a burger for him. At this point, he wasn’t all that worried about a little fast food killing him, he had bigger issues to deal with. As he walked down the street, the smell of food was overpowering his nose even as he tried to sniff past it.

His heavy shades shielded his eyes from the afternoon sun, but they had a problem of cutting off his peripheral vision so he was constantly checking over his shoulders. Thankfully, the one thing that did work were his ears, and he heard the sound of paw pads against hot cement before he smelled the perfume. The familiar clicking of claws as they ran gave away the rather sloppy approach, but with his arms full, he had nothing he could do when the vixen slammed into him.

To everyone else on the street, it was an excited young school girl grappling around the waist of another of her kind. Nick had never lived in the best of neighborhoods, and the action hardly rose an eyebrow from a passing antelope. The street was far from empty, but Nick couldn’t exactly fight her off or call for help with his hands being used to carry supplies. He growled a low warning tone, which quickly faded in his throat.

Nick looked down as the much younger vixen grabbed his arms with a small shout of, “Oh my gosh, it’s you!” The young woman draped herself around his arm as if they were flirting with one another. His growl faded when he felt the cold steel blade press up against the underside of his shirt. Compressed against her as he was, the two looked positively innocent, and yet, he could feel his blood freezing from the sudden attack on his person.

Green eyes looked up at his as she smiled. Nick, who had been expecting a much older attacker, was shocked when the girl’s hoodie fell off and he was left staring at a much younger red fox. Her traits were familiar, but also feminized. She was currently wearing a grey hoodie and a black short skirt. “Relax, you look a little too on edge. I’m just here to deliver a message from my daddy.”

Nick’s mind broke. Every part of his instinct was telling him to attack the girl before she had the chance to kill him, but at the same time, she couldn’t have been more than fifteen. Plus, she had every advantage against him, and he was pretty creeped out that she would call Big her daddy. He didn’t even want to know how that one worked out. Swallowing, he attempted to put on his usual mask of an uncaring persona, but it was made more difficult by the fact that she currently had a knife pressed to his body. “Ombra, I presume?”

The smile she gave to the answer was both genuine and a little creepy, her teeth on full display. She nodded along to the question. “Daddy always did like to train us young, didn’t he?”

“Can you please stop calling Big that?” Every single time she did, Nick wanted to gag. He supposed she meant it more as an adoptive father figure. After all, he himself had called Big father at one point in his life, but hearing it from a young girl brought up images of a shrew and a fox that his mind could not compute. Even with all the evil he had seen and done in the world, this was just a bit too far on his scale of bizarre.

“Fine. Mr. Big wants you and Judy off the Otterton case. He doesn’t want the godmother of his grandchild anywhere near all this unpleasantness, and he doesn’t want to tarnish the ZPD’s reputation. After all, we have a long history with the Tundratown precinct. It would be a shame to ruin that mutual respect we’ve built over the years.” Nick shivered as he felt the girl's tail brush against his own, entwining in what must have looked like a very intimate gesture between two people. But really, it only served to make his skin crawl, the fur on the back of his neck standing on edge.

Nick swallowed, trying to fight back the urge to reject the girl as he felt the cold steel blade creep farther under his shirt, between his arm and ribs.

“This will be your only warning, Nicky. If you don’t stand back, then we will be sending the full force of our family against yours.” Ombra’s voice was perky and sickeningly pleasant, her smile so much happier than Nick’s had ever been when he had worn that title. 

_She is actually enjoying her job._ It was a terrifying thought to be sure, and it suddenly made sense why the girl was so much more reckless than he had been when he was Ombra. Nick had always been curt and professional, cold and distant to his job. He hadn’t enjoyed it, and so, he had done everything he could to set himself up to succeed. No extra risks, always finding the route where someone was most vulnerable, and never trusting more than the smallest number in his actual crew.

This girl didn’t have a radio set up, so he doubted she would let anyone get close to her. She was careless because she had enjoyed her work, and had probably been laughing the entire time the cars were in motion. Nick swallowed lightly. “Mind if I ask a question?”

“I don’t, but I’d choose those words carefully if I were you. Ask the wrong question and I can’t give you a correct answer,” she pouted, the press of the blade tightening a bit.

Nick ran over all the features the girl displayed again. He now had a pretty good idea of where he could find her, or at the least who she was, so the only question that remained for him to ask was a simple one. “Did you kill Finnick last night?”

“Finn-who? No, the only one I killed last night was the otter, and well, I guess I shot at you. But no, after that car chase I had to get myself looked over by one of Big’s docs to make sure I didn’t get hurt when I drove you two off the bridge. If someone killed your friend, it would have been someone else.” Nick looked at her, a con artist to an assassin, and he wasn’t sure if he could fully read her, but he also didn’t think she was bullshitting him either. Nick nodded slowly, and he felt the knife pull back from his fur. She slipped away from his grip, and before he could drop his things to lash out at her, she was already running away.

“Remember, drop the case by tomorrow or I get taken off my leash! You can use your old phone to call daddy and negotiate a peace treaty. Stay away from our family and we won’t destroy anymore of yours.” With that singular warning, the vixen was gone. Nick chased her into an alleyway, but he couldn’t catch hide nor tail of her scent after that moment.

~~~

Nick stormed into his apartment and tossed Judy her clothing before setting up their meals on the counter. He was quick to grab his laptop and log in to the ZPD database. “I know who she is.”

Judy stared at him very confused for a moment as she walked to the bathroom. “What?”

“Ombra. I know the vixen, and I know how we can find her. Get your pants on and eat. After that, we are going on a road trip, because I have an address,” Nick said, his ears perked and ready.

“Nick, we were just given the day off, we aren’t allowed to.”

“It’s a social visit,” Nick said, pulling up an address from the police database but not really thinking about the street road or the map of the city when he had so many bigger fish to fry today. He picked up his burger and pretty much scarfed it down in a few bites. “We just need the mother to give up her daughter. We have to go see Samantha Vulpes.”

Judy blinked, remembering the name of Nick’s wife. A slow comprehension came over her as she strode up to the table and took a bite out of her salad.

~~~

The car ride had been silent. Neither of them talked, but Nick had double and triple-checked the address. The numbers had been a little confusing at first. He thought they were for an apartment number, but when they arrived at the street, a sinking feeling settled in Nick’s stomach.

It was a lot number. They were standing in a graveyard, and they had just found the last known address of Samantha Vulpes, or as it was written on the tombstone, Samantha Wilde. She had never changed her last name back. They had never actually finalized the divorce, and the singular lead he thought he had was buried six feet under his own paws.

He now knew exactly who Ombra was, although he still didn’t have a name to connect to the young vixen he met. The green eyes had given away some of the story, but the simple tombstone told the entire wretched story of his life.

_~‘Samantha Wilde, Loving Mother’~_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Death count... 3? I suppose I was a little blood thirsty, i mean Finnick wasn't even a big part of this story. But when coming back into writing I find it's always a good idea to start off with a bang?
> 
> It was neat seeing everyone in the comments assume that the killer had been Nick's ex, but i gave a few clues from the first time we saw her. First she was short, then in the car chase I gave her eye color, and if you re-read the chapter with Samantha her eye color was a more common yellow.
> 
> This Ombra has been a character I have wanted to put onto paper since like the start of the story, because this was at least partly my responce to the 'nick has a secret child' thing that went through the fandom a while back. I was late to that table when this started so I can only assume that this makes Ombra really really late to the fad.
> 
> We are now past the half way mark, and into the final act.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this goes well, I want to thank everyone who was willing to talk with me and give me encouragement to start writing again. I still want to get back to my other projects, but the long time away has made me a little wary to try any of them. I have people willing to keep me more focused so that I actually start finishing a project, and this one has been kicking around in my head for a while taking a concept and running with it.
> 
> As always I will reply to every comment I can.


End file.
